Vampires and theology

Literary vampires are often associated with reversals and subversions of Christian imagery. Beyond this surface opposition, however, vampires are written as complex tools for theological exploration, as this chapter demonstrates. Tracing the development of vampire literature in the nineteenth century, this chapter investigates how literary vampires articulate theological possibilities beyond mere doctrine. Following the premise that vampires exist variously in the proximity of divinity, this chapter showcases how authors employ the figure of the vampire to ask questions about God, humanity’s relationship to the divine, sacred temporality, and martyrdom, all ultimately explored at the intersection of physical and metaphysical planes. The corporeality of the vampire, this chapter argues, makes possible such points of intersection. From well-known texts including JS Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to lesser-known vampire tales such as William Gilbert’s “The Last Lords of Gardonal,” vampires reflect divine ontologies and temporalities, but resist binary interpretations as simply demonic figures, and this chapter demonstrates how vampires emerge as theological beings necessary in thinking about what lies beyond mere materialism.