C
Convert66
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One common objection to the Christian faith has been it’s comparison with other religious mythologies: Mithras; Tammuz; Osiris, etc. These comparisons seem solid until the meanings behind them, and the particulars given to the similarities are contrasted with a critical eye. Professor Rene’ Girard’s work over the years has drifted from literary criticism, linguistics, and later on, anthropology and, by osmosis perhaps, Christian apologetics. Interestingly, when his religious views were beneath the surface of his work he was hailed as a genius. After his Catholicism became more and more detectable, he seemed to have lost a bit of brain power in the minds of colleagues, peers and the critical press.
His anthropological argument for the verity of the Gospels ( article here) makes a case that Christ’s Passion is the unmasking of a history of ritual and sacrifical murder, covered over with myth, and that His choice to envisage certain of those mythical motifs, with a far different meaning than those preceeding, is a compelling argument for the truthfulness of the Gospels and the claims of Christ. It is worth reading, whether or not you agree.
This brings me to the real point of this thread. Hopefully it will generate discussion, but I would not be surprised to see it go unnoticed or over-the-heads of many regular contributors. Maybe it is just not as interesting to others as it has been for me.
If I understand Girard correctly, we are at risk of fostering a new mythos, precisely as we have deconstructed Christendom, with no recovery in sight of the prevailing legacy of the West and it’s ethical push towards human rights founded upon Christ’s myth-shattering Passion. Victims are never guilty. Yet, we make enemies out of fellow Christians; Muslims; Jews; Atheists; Liberals; Conservatives; Gays; etc., etc. Now, I’ll grant that this is nothing new even for the West. In fact, I would say that it is exactly where Christians have failed to live up to the Divine insight of Christ’s Passion that religious persecutions, wars, and superstitions have claimed the most victims, and ultimately lost the most souls.
What duty do we then have, as professing Christians, to heed Christ’s unmasking and demythologizing Passion and refute violence, and the imitation of violence when confronted by religious, political or ideological adversaries?
The rhetoric is ratcheting up in the US, for instance. We are as divided as ever, save the Civil War, and it seems the rush to mimetic violence is escalating. Random acts of violence against foreigners, unrequiting would-be paramours, mothers against children, husbands and fathers against wives and children, the picked-on against the bully— these seem to be a predominant theme in our culture anymore (I concede this may be exaggerated by the 24/7 news cycle and a growing population).
We can see this, writ small, on the forums. Some of the worst vitriol is spewed, and once unleashed it seems that there is a mad rush on joining in the mob, turning “us” against “them,” and identifying the “other” as the root of our problems.
Have we not been sufficiently taught our own faith? Do we neglect it at our own peril?
Girard’s thesis is compelling. One significant difference between Christianity and other religions, he argues, is that Christianity is the only religion to prophesy its own failure, in the form of the Apocalypse. We will never win the world for Christ. It will be necessary for Christ Himself to intervene or else " . . .there will no flesh be saved" in an escalation of mimetic violence that His Cross refuted 2,000 years ago.
We hear a lot about the Antichrist in these days, as in others, I suppose. But it seems that if Girard is on the right track, we may be looking for a man that re-establishes a global cultural mythos of “us” versus “them.” I have a hunch that it will be the “dogmatic and narrow-minded” religious that will be the next victims, the seeds to found the new mythological Church of Man as God. I think we can see the shots across the bow over the past several hundred years, and we see this in other countries where true persecutions seem to be escalating once again.
How is this compulsion (concupiscence) to rush to mimetic violence in the group against the “other” fueling our rush to the very thing we seem to fear the most? Is there no end to our capacity for inhumanity? Are we Christian enough, yet?
All thoughts are appreciated.
His anthropological argument for the verity of the Gospels ( article here) makes a case that Christ’s Passion is the unmasking of a history of ritual and sacrifical murder, covered over with myth, and that His choice to envisage certain of those mythical motifs, with a far different meaning than those preceeding, is a compelling argument for the truthfulness of the Gospels and the claims of Christ. It is worth reading, whether or not you agree.
This brings me to the real point of this thread. Hopefully it will generate discussion, but I would not be surprised to see it go unnoticed or over-the-heads of many regular contributors. Maybe it is just not as interesting to others as it has been for me.
If I understand Girard correctly, we are at risk of fostering a new mythos, precisely as we have deconstructed Christendom, with no recovery in sight of the prevailing legacy of the West and it’s ethical push towards human rights founded upon Christ’s myth-shattering Passion. Victims are never guilty. Yet, we make enemies out of fellow Christians; Muslims; Jews; Atheists; Liberals; Conservatives; Gays; etc., etc. Now, I’ll grant that this is nothing new even for the West. In fact, I would say that it is exactly where Christians have failed to live up to the Divine insight of Christ’s Passion that religious persecutions, wars, and superstitions have claimed the most victims, and ultimately lost the most souls.
What duty do we then have, as professing Christians, to heed Christ’s unmasking and demythologizing Passion and refute violence, and the imitation of violence when confronted by religious, political or ideological adversaries?
The rhetoric is ratcheting up in the US, for instance. We are as divided as ever, save the Civil War, and it seems the rush to mimetic violence is escalating. Random acts of violence against foreigners, unrequiting would-be paramours, mothers against children, husbands and fathers against wives and children, the picked-on against the bully— these seem to be a predominant theme in our culture anymore (I concede this may be exaggerated by the 24/7 news cycle and a growing population).
We can see this, writ small, on the forums. Some of the worst vitriol is spewed, and once unleashed it seems that there is a mad rush on joining in the mob, turning “us” against “them,” and identifying the “other” as the root of our problems.
Have we not been sufficiently taught our own faith? Do we neglect it at our own peril?
Girard’s thesis is compelling. One significant difference between Christianity and other religions, he argues, is that Christianity is the only religion to prophesy its own failure, in the form of the Apocalypse. We will never win the world for Christ. It will be necessary for Christ Himself to intervene or else " . . .there will no flesh be saved" in an escalation of mimetic violence that His Cross refuted 2,000 years ago.
We hear a lot about the Antichrist in these days, as in others, I suppose. But it seems that if Girard is on the right track, we may be looking for a man that re-establishes a global cultural mythos of “us” versus “them.” I have a hunch that it will be the “dogmatic and narrow-minded” religious that will be the next victims, the seeds to found the new mythological Church of Man as God. I think we can see the shots across the bow over the past several hundred years, and we see this in other countries where true persecutions seem to be escalating once again.
How is this compulsion (concupiscence) to rush to mimetic violence in the group against the “other” fueling our rush to the very thing we seem to fear the most? Is there no end to our capacity for inhumanity? Are we Christian enough, yet?
All thoughts are appreciated.