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H.P. Lovecraft: Why You Should Know About Him

by James Barringer  
9/09/2009 / Christian Living

"The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination," said one Howard Phillips Lovecraft. A horror writer from the early part of the 20th century, Lovecraft wrote prolifically, generating dozens of short stories and creating several staples of the genre, including the popular Cthulhu mythos. He wasn't a Christian - he loathed organized religion and was a staunch atheist - but I think that the themes and philosophy in his writing ought to lead anyone who reads him straight to the cross.

One of Lovecraft's favorite themes is characters whose minds are shredded by a momentary glimpse into the universe - the utter, infinite vastness, and (as far as he was concerned) how impersonal, how apathetic the universe was toward him, how he was desperately clinging to life in a universe so massive it defies comprehension. Through some twist of fate, a man might just for a moment see what Lovecraft called "ultimate reality" - stars, galaxies, whirling through the black expanse, and himself only a single nameless face on a lone planet whirling through the black. When he understands just how much is out there and just how totally inconsequential his own life is, his mind snaps. Either he is driven insane by his new revelation, or he understands it completely and suicide is his only recourse - how else could a person cope with such meaninglessness? One of Lovecraft's stories, "Till A' the Seas," was sent to me by a friend with the comment, "I've never felt as alone as I did after reading this."

The thing of it is, I think Lovecraft is on to something. Is there any untruth in the previous paragraph? Is the universe not unspeakably vast, and is not the life of a single man so trivial as to be worthless? If any one of us were gone, would the universe miss us? If I tell you that there are an estimated 100 billion galaxies, EACH containing as many as a trillion stars, can your mind even comprehend the unimaginably huge number that results? The inability of the human mind to understand the vastness of the universe must surely be a gift from God, or else any one of us would do exactly what Lovecraft's characters end up doing. Lovecraft himself said, ""The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far."

I've yet to hear a better explanation from anyone, Christian or otherwise, of what the world looks like without God in it. I doubt any of you would so much as move to a new city without knowing anyone there; we can scarcely even imagine what it would be like to be alone in the universe, without a single friend or creature that cared about you, merely one more human in a writhing mass of humanity that persisted without meaning, without purpose, pointlessly. My life is a random act of chance in a universe that could care less if I died tonight - according to Lovecraft, and other naturalists like him.

It's for this reason that I find Lovecraft's philosophy inconsistent - he obviously did not believe it enough to actually live it, or else he would have killed himself just as his characters do. It also miserably fails to speak to mankind's intrinsic need for significance. Since the dawn of humanity, men have been motivated by a need to feel in their heart that they mean something. Lovecraft would tell us that this need is completely misguided, that no meaning exists, and that we should reconcile ourselves to this fact. Can he really be saying that every single human, ever, has felt an emotion which is false and a need which does not even exist, let alone cannot be satisfied? The principle of Occam's Razor - the simplest explanation is usually the right one - would indicate that such a thing is unlikely in the extreme. If one person feels something he may be a madman; two may be deluded; but billions upon billions over a span of thousands of years? Surely this craving for meaning cannot be a red herring.

However, I believe that several key elements of his philosophy are absolutely correct. The universe is indeed so huge that no human mind can comprehend it (there are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe; what does that even mean?) and, if it was impersonal and apathetic, it would surely not be a place worth living in. These are facts, and they are so obvious that even a secular atheistic horror writer has understood them. Yet it is also a fact that the universe is not apathetic, and it is not impersonal. There is a personal God, a creator, who individually paid you time and attention as he knit you together in your mother's womb, and placed you on this earth with purpose and meaning and the ability to have a relationship with him. Even when you ignored him, rebelled against him, lived like he didn't exist, and refused to return his love or friendship, he kept on pursuing you, because you mean more to him than any star or galaxy ever could.

If only Lovecraft had realized how true his premises were, he might have reached their logical conclusion: that experiencing the love of God is the only thing that makes life in this cold, vast universe worth living.

Lovecraft was a funny fellow. He had no faith in God while he did have faith in his fellow man, despite coming of age during World War I, the most catastrophic failure of human idealism and politics up to that point (and mercifully he died before the even more catastrophic failure, World War II). He was racist and sexist, and he defended these views with science. He was an atheistic naturalist and disbelieved in the supernatural, but wrote stories featuring dark powers, demons, mythical creatures, and the like. He was dedicated and devoted to science, while extremely pessimistic and skeptical about what science would ultimately reveal to humanity. Yet for all his flaws, he was a human, beloved by God. His position as one of the most influential horror writers in history means that there are also thousands of people who think like him, who subscribe to his worldview, and who also desperately need the love and hope that Christ can bring.

We know the truth of God. We know that the universe came into being at his imagination and by his word, that he had something definite in mind when he made it, something that would speak to the deep-set need for meaning that every human harbors. He is the only thing big enough to fill that need. His infinite, unfailing love has pursued us through history, through all our failings, to the very point of our need, and even now he is waiting with open arms for us to throw ourselves inside and simply be loved and cherished by our father.

"The stars whirred on; the whole careless plan would continue for infinities unknown. This trivial end of a negligible episode mattered not to distant nebulae or to suns new-born, flourishing, and dying. The race of man, too puny and momentary to have a real function or purpose, was as if it had never existed. To such a conclusion the aeons of its farcically toilsome evolution had led." --Howard Phillips Lovecraft, "Till A' the Seas"

Jim Barringer is a 38-year-old writer, musician, and teacher. More of his work can be found at facebook.com/jmbarringer. This work may be reprinted for any purpose so long as this bio and statement of copyright is included.

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