Tuesday, August 14, 2007

René Girard Quotes

Athos asked for one and I go over-board...

“What is frightening is the conjunction of massive technical power and the spiritual surrender to nihilism. A panic-stricken refusal to glance, even furtively, in the only direction where meaning could still be found dominates our intellectual life.” – René Girard


" . . the Gospels set in motion the only textual mechanism that can put an end to humanity’s imprisonment in the system of mythological representation . . ." - René Girard


"We cannot escape the issue of a relationship with the real course of history. Indeed, we shall see that only by confronting the real course of history -- which the gospel text claims to determine -- can the astonishing coherence of the gospel logic be fully revealed in our time." - René Girard


"If the Judeo-Christian ferment is not dead, it must be engaged in an obscure struggle against deeper and deeper layers of the essential complicity between violence and human culture." - René Girard


"The Bible has given us the privileged tool of demystification, but we either do not know how to use it, or do not want to use it. Perhaps we are secretly afraid it will wreak too much havoc." - René Girard

2 comments:

Athos said...

The first quotation was the one I was trying to recall. Thanks!

David Nybakke said...

I know, but when I opened up my file on Girard quotes I couldn't help myself. You are lucky I stopped when I did.