Re: Violence and the Sacred

Thanks for sharing this piece, Rowland. I have found the theological anthropology of Rene Girard enormously helpful over the last couple of years. I must admit to not having read very much of Girard himself, but quite a bit from some of his followers. I would especially commend James Alison’s book “Knowing Jesus” as a wonderful introduction to the theology of the atonement from this perspective (and only just over 100 pages). I’m not alone in my enthusiasm for this little book. N.T.Wright says of it, “James Alison has been gripped by the rich excitement of Jesus’ resurrection, and has had the courage to think through its meaning in ways which make most Easter sermons seem bland and dull by comparison. The lessons he draws are striking and at times controversial, but it’s hard to see how one can disagree with them without denying the very foundations of the Christian faith.” And the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, describes it as “the most lucid and imaginative presentation of a theology of redemption that I have read in many years.”

Another really good resource for those who follow the lectionary in their preaching, is the site http://girardianlectionary.net It provides commentary on the weekly texts from a Griardian perspective and frequently includes lengthy extracts from the writings of Girard or others whose thought has been influenced by his perspectives. That site has had a bigger influence on my preaching in the last year or so than any other resource. I find these materials to be often dense and full of specialist jargon, so it takes some perseverance to get into, but I have found that the more I have stayed with it the more illuminating it has become.

In a nutshell, what the Girardians claim is that Christian theology has often developed its theology of atonement without an adequate anthropology of the nature and workings of human sin, and that Girard has provided us with one of the first really coherent and thoroughly Christian theory of the nature and workings of sin. The more I have read, the more I find this claim to be believable. One of the things that is so exciting about it is that its explanation of sin is so transparently at work in the scapegoating and killing of Jesus that it really lights up the way his death is both a result of our sin and the source of salvation from our sin.

There is one central component of Girard’s theory that Rowland’s anonymous scholar friend didn’t say much about. It is described with one of the main bits of jargon the Girardian’s use: “mimetic desire”. Mimetic means something like “imitative”. Girard’s argument is that human beings imitate one another’s desires. That is, we begin to desire the things that we see being desired by others. We ascribe value to things on the basis of their desirability to other people. You only have to observe how most advertising works to see the truth of this! But then, these mimetic or imitative desires cause us to be desiring the same things than therefore turn us into rivals. Then our rivalry turns to violence and scapegoating and sets of the descent into all-against-all violence that Rowland’s friend did describe, and the whole ritualised scapegoating and sacrificing mechanism is employed to halt the violence and bring about a (violently maintained) peace.

The flip side of this mimetic desire is that Jesus calls us to a freedom by learning not to imitate one another, but to imitate Christ in his imitation of the Father. There is an acceptance that we can’t stop being imitative, but that freedom comes in imitating the relationships within the triune God, for these are the only relationships that are not characterised by rivalry, but by complete non-violence and complete self-offering for the sake of the other. Rowland’s friend does point to this side of it at the end of his/her piece:

For Girard, Jesus death achieves at-one-ment by revealing to us the imitation of the true God as totally non-violent and the gods of the religions as human inventions founded in violence. We certainly need our sins forgiven, especially the sins of violent scapegoating we continue to perpetrate in our families, workplaces and international relations, but most of all we need to renounce our images of God as violent and imitate Jesus who imitated God.

Anyway, enough for now. I would add my strong commendation to that of Rowland’s friend. The website I mentioned has a catalogue of books and articles which explore the implications of Girards thought for Christian theology and practice. I hope and pray that others among you might find it as helpful as I am finding it.

Peace and hope,

Nathan ______________________________________

Nathan Nettleton

Pastor, South Yarra Community Baptist Church

Melbourne, Australia