TFS 8, 3: Monsters (and How to Scare Them): Scrooge from A Christmas Carol

We come to the final class of this Series, attending to the character of Scrooge portrayed by Charles Dickens in his 1843 novel A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas.

How is it, we may ask ourselves as we read, that Scrooge will become so frightened when his longtime partner is “sent” to him on a mission of mercy (think here of Luke 16:30 - He (the Rich Man) said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’)? And why do the “angelic” presences, the three Spirits, clearly sent by Divine Kindness with Scrooge’s salvation in mind, so frighten Scrooge? Why do Monsters fear, and misinterpret the intentions of, holy and good persons come to love and teach them? Think here of John 3:19 - “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.”