Thursday, March 19, 2009

No Romanticism in the Gospel - either imitate Christ & live or self-destruct

René Girard from his book, Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture

The Cross has destroyed once and for all the cathartic power of the scapegoat mechanism. Consequently, the Gospel does not provide a happy ending to our history. It simply shows us two options (which is exactly what ideologies never provide, freedom of choice): either we imitate Christ, giving up all our mimetic violence, or we run the risk of self-destruction. The apocalyptic feeling is based on that risk. p 237

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