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Cook, Gavin

Professor Penner

RELS 216

March 15th, 2024

Klaus Hargreeves on Christ and the Loss of Faith

Suffering and Faith

Schmitt, R., 1979, “Suffering and Faith”, Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp.

263-275. jstor.org/stable/27505524

This source delves into the relationship between suffering and faith, specifically how

suffering can lead a faithful person in two opposing directions – it can cause a person to believe

more in what they believe in, strengthening their faith, or it can cause a person to stop believing,

diminishing their faith. It discusses how faith in God implies that a believer trusts God to provide

and care for them, as they will worship and protect the image of God in return – and when a

person suffers for any reason, it can trigger different psychological reactions in their mind. They

could believe the suffering is a result of something outside of God’s control, perhaps a test, and

turn to Him in a greater way to seek further shelter from the suffering, or they could see it as a

sign that either God is not protecting them, or God is making them suffer on purpose; causing

them to lose their faith. It does this by comparing God to a ‘Father figure’, and this relates to

Klaus Hargreeves as he, representing not only Christ but a follower of God, has a seemingly god-

like father who caused and allowed him to suffer, pushing Klaus to lose his faith in his father –

and the ramifications of his suffering paired with his loss of faith in family and a ‘God’ figure.
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“Charactour: Klaus Hargreeevs”

Klaus Hargreeves. Charactour. 2017, charactour.com/hub/characters/view/Klaus-

Hargreeves.The-Umbrella-Academy#:~:text=sarcastic%2C%20hedonistic%2C%20and

%20hilarious.,a%20life%20free%20of%20responsibility.

This page is a website which explains fictional characters’ lives, personalities, ambitions,

and flaws. It goes in depth on Klaus Hargreeves as a character to provide information that is

useful when it comes to understanding who he is, what he acts like, and his beliefs – information

that will tie into how his role as the Christ figure of the story and his loss of faith affected him

and the people around him, such as how he turned to drugs and how he became sardonic.

The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ

Stalker, James. The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ, Andrews UK Ltd., 2012. ProQuest Ebook

Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stfx/detail.action?docID=4460794.

This book tells the story of the final days of Jesus’ life and the cause-effect consequences

of his death and subsequent rebirth. Jesus had been betrayed by somebody close to him and

executed by people he trusted, but he died with pride and chose to die for the sins of humanity –

days later, he rose again and emerged as a saint deity, part of the holy trinity, to be the savior of

humankind once more. This will be compared to the story of Klaus Hargreeves in Season 4 of

The Umbrella Academy, wherein he is murdered by his father, a man he had come to trust once

again after years of lost faith, only to wake up in the realm between life-and-death and be told of

his purpose in the world. He is subsequently revived with a new sense of purpose and sets out to
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save his family, who could be compared to other followers of the Lord, or other people who he

will save from sin.

The Book of Job

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "The Book of Job". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Nov.

2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Book-of-Job. Accessed 12 March 2024.

This encyclopedia article recounts the biblical Book of Job and the message behind it,

one of piety, or trust and devotion in one’s God rewarding them. In the Book of Job, a man who

believes strongly in God begins to experience great suffering, losing everything from his

livestock to his family, and in the end begins to question why God would allow such things to

happen when Job has been nothing but faithful; to which God scolds him for questioning his

word, despite the fact that the cause of Job’s suffering was a bet between God and the satan,

therefore putting God at fault for it directly. In the case of Klaus Hargreeves as a follower who

lost his faith, there is a relation to the ways in which Klaus suffered at the hands of ‘God’, his

father, and the ways which Job suffered – as well as the responses to both, that I will analyze.
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Works Cited

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "The Book of Job". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Nov.

2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Book-of-Job. Accessed 12 March 2024.

Klaus Hargreeves. Charactour. 2017, charactour.com/hub/characters/view/Klaus-

Hargreeves.The-Umbrella-Academy#:~:text=sarcastic%2C%20hedonistic%2C%20and

%20hilarious.,a%20life%20free%20of%20responsibility.

Schmitt, R., 1979, “Suffering and Faith”, Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp.

263-275. jstor.org/stable/27505524

Stalker, James. The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ, Andrews UK Ltd., 2012. ProQuest Ebook

Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stfx/detail.action?docID=4460794.