Friday, February 27, 2009

No Longer Able to Limit His Capacity for Destruction

René Girard I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

By depriving the victim mechanism of the darkness that must conceal it so it can continue to control human culture, the cross shakes up the world. Its light deprives Satan of his principal power, the power to expel Satan. Once the cross completely illuminates this dark sun, Satan is no longer able to limit his capacity for destruction. Satan will destroy his kingdom, and he will destroy himself. (my emphasis)

To understand this is to understand why Paul sees the Cross as the source of all knowledge about the world and human beings as well as about God. When Paul asserts that he wants to know nothing besides Christ crucified, he is not engaging in "anti-intellectualism." He is not announcing his contempt for knowledge. Paul believes quite literally that there is no knowledge superior to knowing the crucified Christ. If we go to this school, we will learn more about God and humankind simultaneously than if we look to any other source of knowledge. p142

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