SFS: Chapter 2: The Cross No One Sees: Invisible Scapegoats
First, what is the deal with colons in titles?
Second, this book is excellent. I am not completely sold on Girardian social theory (which we will come to), at least as the metanarrative ('grand recit,' since he is French--thanks Crusty Guy), but it is interesting, considered, clever, and has no agenda hidden.
Anyway, on to the chapter.
Heim's proposal in this chapter is that if the cross is universal in scope and applicability, there must be a universal problem it addresses. He proposes one way "that the death Jesus died [is] related to the very fabric of...human life" (38). Basically, ritual sacrifice (sometimes of the human variety) is the method that humans have used to control violence and achieve temporary peace. The death of Jesus, unlike all other sacrificial myths, unveils what is really going on--scapegoating violence--in order to pull the curtain back on all other scapegoat victims.
Rene Girard's theory is that in the process of becoming human, the conflicts that would arise in burgeoning social groups would be solved by scapegoating sacrifice. Something (often, someone) was the cause of the group's problem and their violence vented against the person would achieve reprieve. Because this violence actually did achieve temporary peace, there was a sacred element attached to it that claimed divine work behind the violence. Oftentimes the victim would be elevated to being the divine at work in the midst of the people, though they were unaware.
Heim highlights the myths of sacrifice and violence that often tell stories of societiess (e.g., Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome). While in the West we are conditioned to hear such sacrificial myths as just stories, Girard's claim is the behind such myths is real and true violence. There is an actual victim, a founding murder. Of course, the peace achieved by sacred violence was not permanent. It ended. And so another scapegoat was necessary. And the process continues, even today.... What is different, as Heim will point out, is that today the hiddenness of such scapegoats is removed; they are easier to see because of the scapegoating of Christ.
Heim closes the chapter with the following interchange between Foucault and Girard; it shows how he will bring this around to Christian theology and why Girard himself is a man of faith:
"Michel Foucault...reproached Girard for his insistent concern with violence and sacrifice: 'It is not necessary to build an entire philosophy on the victim.' To which Girard replied, 'No, not a philosophy -- rather a religion.... But one already exists!' It was in the Bible" (63).
Second, this book is excellent. I am not completely sold on Girardian social theory (which we will come to), at least as the metanarrative ('grand recit,' since he is French--thanks Crusty Guy), but it is interesting, considered, clever, and has no agenda hidden.
Anyway, on to the chapter.
Heim's proposal in this chapter is that if the cross is universal in scope and applicability, there must be a universal problem it addresses. He proposes one way "that the death Jesus died [is] related to the very fabric of...human life" (38). Basically, ritual sacrifice (sometimes of the human variety) is the method that humans have used to control violence and achieve temporary peace. The death of Jesus, unlike all other sacrificial myths, unveils what is really going on--scapegoating violence--in order to pull the curtain back on all other scapegoat victims.
Rene Girard's theory is that in the process of becoming human, the conflicts that would arise in burgeoning social groups would be solved by scapegoating sacrifice. Something (often, someone) was the cause of the group's problem and their violence vented against the person would achieve reprieve. Because this violence actually did achieve temporary peace, there was a sacred element attached to it that claimed divine work behind the violence. Oftentimes the victim would be elevated to being the divine at work in the midst of the people, though they were unaware.
Heim highlights the myths of sacrifice and violence that often tell stories of societiess (e.g., Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome). While in the West we are conditioned to hear such sacrificial myths as just stories, Girard's claim is the behind such myths is real and true violence. There is an actual victim, a founding murder. Of course, the peace achieved by sacred violence was not permanent. It ended. And so another scapegoat was necessary. And the process continues, even today.... What is different, as Heim will point out, is that today the hiddenness of such scapegoats is removed; they are easier to see because of the scapegoating of Christ.
Heim closes the chapter with the following interchange between Foucault and Girard; it shows how he will bring this around to Christian theology and why Girard himself is a man of faith:
"Michel Foucault...reproached Girard for his insistent concern with violence and sacrifice: 'It is not necessary to build an entire philosophy on the victim.' To which Girard replied, 'No, not a philosophy -- rather a religion.... But one already exists!' It was in the Bible" (63).
posted by Aaron Perry at
9:17 AM
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