Dr. Seuss and Theology?!?

I have always liked Dr. Seuss, perhaps because Theodor Seuss Geisel ('25) was a fellow Dartmouth graduate. Perhaps, I liked him because I like rhyme, doodling and creative story telling. What I didn't imagine was that Dr. Seuss was actually a theologian telling parables of the Christian faith. What!?! My wife Joan introduced me to a book from an Arkansas pastor who makes just that case.

In his book "The Parables of Dr. Seuss", Robert Short argues convincingly that the children's books we have grown to love actually have embedded Christian messages. For example,Short argues that the Cat in the Hat is actually Jesus; Thing One and Thing Two are the two sides of the law- love God and love your neighbor; and the fish that always seems to complain is organized religion. And of course if The Cat is Jesus then could "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" be about the second coming or the resurrection? Short is bold enough to suggest that "Green Eggs and Ham" is actually a parable about the Lord's Supper and "Sam-I-Am" is short hand for God. Samuel means "the name of God" and "I-am" is of course the name that God gives to Moses, "I am who I am". Is it starting to make sense? How about "The Lorax", a delightful message about environmental awareness. But if your look at the story through Christological eyes, you might notice that the name "Lorax" just might be a contraction of "Lord and Christ", Lor-a-X. It is more compelling when you realize that the according to Seuss, Lorax came "out of a stump of the tree I'd chopped down. It was sort of a man..." It sure sounds like Isaiah language, "A shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse..." And when Lorax departs, Seuss describes it with these words "he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace." The ascension???

So next time I sit down with my grandkids to read "The Butter Battle Book" or "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" I won't just be reading a cute chidren's book. It will be a chance to see if indeed, there is an embedded Christian message. After all, Theodor Giesel once said "I get away with preaching by disguising the message." And did you know that Theodor Geisel once approached the Oxford University Press into re-releasing "Paradise Lost" with him as the illustrator.? We can only imagine!