Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Dreadnought and James Alison: Duel of Titans
A somewhat inevitable head-to-head has commenced, between Dreadnought and James Alison, and it is worth checking out. I hope to add more in the comment boxes about how both men have influenced me (positively). But at any rate, theirs is indeed the beginning of an important discussion--important to how "Girardianism" is defined, and what place Girard's thought occupies in theology and moral teaching. A crucial discussion. Let us hope and pray for more light than heat here.
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5 comments:
This should indeed be a valuable discussion!
Reading Dreadnought's blog, I don't see that he actually be in dialog or discussion with Alison. Too bad, or I hope I misread. That would be a phenomenal exchange - not that I'd see much hope of change or influence from one to the other.
Dreadnought seems to peg Alison correctly, IMO: a Girardian who happens to be a Catholic theologian instead of Haldane and Heard who are Catholics first and foremost.
This is probably the second post by Dread, and the most in-depth so far, regarding James Alison. So, yes, there is no dialogue as yet per se, but here perhaps the beginning of one. I've pushed Dreadnought through emails to read and respond to James Alison's Faith Beyond Resentment, but I don't think he has yet. James' The Joy of Being Wrong was formative for me in my Girard experience and in my conversion to Catholicism experience--in somewhat the same way Gil Bailie has been formative to you two. James started to lose me in his subsequent work, but I do owe him a debt for his early stuff and he is (in person) a great guy. I'll try to post more later.
For such an apparently ineluctable homosexual as Dreadnought to be so firmly convinced of the authority of the Catholic Church and its Magisterium makes him the inevitable, worthy and capable sparing partner with Alison.
I like his emphasis on the holiness of the Church and our humble acceptance of a gracious place in it vs. the alternatingly offensive "victimeeze" rhetoric and defensive postures of the proponents of "rights". If that makes any sense.
Well written article.
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