I missed this news when it occurred in July — Robert L. Short, who wrote a series of books looking at biblical themes in Peanuts, passed away.

The three books he wrote about Peanuts, starting with the best-selling The Gospel According To Peanuts, through The Parables of Peanuts, and ending with Short Meditations on the Bible and Peanuts, varied in overall interest for someone coming at them from the angle of being a Peanuts fan. The earliest was really alook at the strip and finding the biblical and values commentary therein, but they slid more into being looks at biblical concepts and finding a strip that simply illustrated the point. But still, it was an interesting angle to take, and it’s worth reading the first one.

I’ve long meant to do more research into this, but I think Short may have launched an industry. Nowadays, books that use some specific pop culture series as the base for looking at some specific discipine – physics in Star Wars, philosophy in Buffy, religion in The Simpsons, and so forth – are pretty common. But did such a form exist in 1965? I’ve seen no sign of it.  I can’t promise it isn’t out there, but I’d be a little surprised if it was. A lot of writers out there may owe him, whether they know it or not.

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