Neo-Christ: Jesus, The Matrix, and Secondary Allegory as a Rhetorical Form

Abstract

When The Matrix was released in 1999 it provoked a firestorm of response from pop culture critics, philosophers, technophiles, and communication scholars. However, one of the strongest reactions came from the evangelical Christian audience. Within days of the film's release, Matrix terminology and images began to appear in sermons and other pedagogical rhetoric. This essay argues that for the Christian audience The Matrix functions as a secondary allegory. Weaving together theories of allegory, I propose a two part analysis based on the form of rhetorical allegory (narrative format, pretext, knowledgeable audience, and assumed allegorist) and its functions (epistemological and pedagogical) to better understand the evangelical Christian reaction.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Robert Rowland for his advice and the reviewers and editors for their insightful comments on this project.

Notes

The importance of allegory as a rhetorical construct has long been recognized. Aristotle (1954, 2007), Cicero (1970), Quintilian (1966), and Augustine (1997) all saw allegory as a valuable rhetorical tool. In fact, it is Quintilian's approach that became the formalized standard for understanding allegory: “Allegory…either presents one thing in words and another in meaning, or else something absolutely opposed to the meaning of the words” (1966, p. 327). Thus allegory is a “species of narrative…which invites a second, different interpretation,” or an enthymematic narrative (1966, p. 327); a position echoed by Coleridge (1936a, 1936b) and others (Bain, 1871; Fletcher, 1964; Frye, 1957; Kelley, 1997; Knaller, 2002; Puttenham, 1589/1869; Spencer, 1892; Whitman, 1987). While the enthymematic perspective defines what allegory is, it doesn't provide critical insight as to how or what it does.

Other parallels drawn from The Matrix films were too numerous to recount. Writers focused on such minutiae from Neo's name (Thomas [i.e., the doubter] Anderson [which many morphed into Son of Man, another name for Jesus in the gospels]), the fact that only God or Jesus Christ are uttered in reference to Neo, the casting of Keanu Reeves as Neo, Morpheus' similarity to John the Baptist, the chief Agent Smith's similarity to the Antichrist, Morpheus' crewmembers Tank and Dozer roles as apostles, Morpheus' hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar, cell phones, the human city of Zion, the Matrix program itself, the traitorous Cypher's name and portrayals of the devil, Judas, and the wayward Christian, to the FedEx employee who delivers Neo's cell phone (see Bolz-Weber, n.d.; Burek, 2003, pp. G1–G2; Henry, 2003, p. G1; Kjos, 2003; Percy, 2003, p. 25; The Matrix vs. the Bible, 2003, p. 16 for examples).

See also Jansen, 2002, p. 01Z; Meyers, 1999, p. 6B; Moss, 2003, p. E3; Nowlin, 2000, p. N1; Perstein, 1998, p. A03.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mike Milford

Mike Milford, Department of Communication Studies, Tarleton State University.