The Theology of Dracula: Reading the Book of Stoker as Sacred Text by Rarignac, Noel Montague-Etienne (review)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the classic tale of the undead who lust after the blood of virginal females, has long been embraced by the mainstream and subcultures alike; even today, it continues to be read and adapted to stage and screen, and it has even inspired various sequels. Noel Montague-Etienne Rarignac, however, sidesteps these popular derivatives and looks at Dracula through a much more spiritual lens in his most recent publication, The Theology of Dracula. In his book, Rarignac examines Stoker’s beloved work as more than a mere tale of terror and repressed sexuality; instead, he views it as a sacred text.

Rarignac gradually unpacks what he means by the term “sacred text” (1), which might initially surprise the reader. Rarignac does not define Stoker’s work as “sacred” in the sense that it has any sort of unified theological message. Instead, the novel qualifies as “sacred” for Rarignac because it contains a surprising medley of dissonant theological foundations, imagery, and goals. The cacophonous assortment of sacred layers that Rarignac discovers is almost disorienting, ranging from Eastern to Western religious traditions, from ancient times to the Christianity of his day. Rarignac further establishes his theory by comparing the work to other sacred texts, through their common usage of allusions to earlier sacred worldviews and his belief that the work itself aims to encourage the reader to engage in personal spiritual reflection.

Rarignac begins by spending a bit too much time (virtually half the book) establishing the origins and inspirations of Dracula in several previous works. Among these are Goethe’s The Bride of Corinth, John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, and Alexandre Dumas’s play Le Vampire. Rarignac shows how these foundational tales are inspired by the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece (24), with their rites aimed at achieving mystical transcendence and immortality. Traces of this yearning for eternal life and resurrection remain in Stoker’s work, firmly grounding it in sacred concerns, according to Rarignac. While these tales form an intriguing foundation for Stoker’s work, as opposed to the simplistic assumption that Stoker was solely motivated by the Romanian myths of Vlad Tepes, the detail of summary that Rarignac provides becomes rather tedious.

Rarignac then continues on to Stoker’s work itself, carefully sifting through the theological tiers that make up the text. He begins by examining the narrative structure of the novel, which parallels the “Neolithic agricultural calendar” (13) in its periods of light and dark. He then goes on to discover references to various Norse gods, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Gnostic disdain for the body, Mesopotamian rituals, the Last Supper of Jesus, and numerous other ancient religious worldviews. Rarignac meticulously establishes the depth and mosaic-like quality of this rich work through close examination of the text and extensive research into these ancient traditions. He argues that it is these layers, each pointing beyond itself to a distinct otherness, that make the work a sacred text as he defines it: a “mystical narrative” (223) that builds on and complicates former ideas of holiness.

Rarignac finally comes to the most potent reason that the work is truly a “sacred project” (195), and that is in its intention. Rarignac uncovers allusions to the practice of alchemy in Dracula, which he uses as a metaphor for the novel itself—the combination of all these sacred ingredients creates something more precious than the sum of its parts—a text that forces itself back on the reader’s personal spirituality to “spark the inner light within.” Rarignac claims that Stoker intended this work to challenge its readers into self-evaluation and questioning—a true goal of any sacred work or myth. Dracula, in this way, becomes a sacred text that points not only beyond itself to other modes of sanctity but to the individual readers, forcing them to...