So What?
What would it mean for our theologies
if we demystified Satan? What would it mean if Satan looked more like us and
less like God? Would we not be able to understand why there is evil in the
world? Would we not begin to see that from the beginning, we are liars and
murderers? Would we not be able to see the power of the cross as the place
where the prince of this world is expelled? Would we not begin to see the
multiplicity of forms the Satanic takes and how Jesus addressed, revealed
and conquered them all during his earthly ministry? And in the light of this
revelation, would we not be able to renounce Satan in all of his aspects as
the early Christians did in their baptismal liturgies?
Satan will always do his best to hide
himself behind the cloak of transcendence, behind a veil of illusion. It is
an element of his deception. If we acquiesce, it is proof that we are deceived.
Because Jesus has exposed the principalities and powers of mimetic violence
in his death on the cross, we no longer need fear them, nor hearken to their
voices, nor follow and imitate them. We no longer need be enmeshed in cyclic
(= ‘sicklic’) pathologies that seek to blame, expel and violate.
Because of Jesus, we have an Exodus, a way out, a new model to follow. Because
of Jesus we can be freed from the contagion of negative mimesis (the Satanic
power), liberated to live in wholeness of mind and spirit. And in that liberation
we can bear witness to God’s power. And we are freed to do this on all
of the levels that we have been affected by mimetic contagion, including,
especially including, our spirituality. How shall we then live?
How indeed?
Some, reading our site from the topos
of the victimage mechanism, will say of us, “They deny the reality of
Satan! That is Satan’s greatest triumph, to convince us he doesn’t
exist!”
Let us be very clear here. We do not
deny the reality of Satan, only the traditional, transcendent understanding
of his identity. The removal of Satan from our vocabularies is not the result
of the triumph of “secular humanism” but the result of the destructuring
of the ancient version of Satan that has allowed us to perpetuate the victimage
mechanism by keeping it below the level of consciousness.
Satan is real, Satan, in his lies, is
incredibly powerful, but Satan Is not a negative version of the divine.
As preachers, we have to take Satan seriously.
I don’t hesitate to refer to the satanic and demonic when I feel called
to in preaching. What we mustn’t do, though, is use these terms to label
others, as they’ve been used so frequently before. This is the route
of the Gerasenes. We are all victims/perpetrators of the scapegoating mechanism.
Sermon thoughts:
Rather than point to those possessed
in our preaching this week, we do well to identify the ways we have tried
to confine others with chains in our own society. We use the terms “crazy”
and “insane” frequently to label those with whom we disagree.
We bind others with a variety of chains these days. Some are in our prisons
(Since we closed most of the beds in our asylums, most of their inhabitants
have found their way from the streets to our jails.) others are in our subway
tunnels. Some have been bound with chains of debt, others are in the thrall
of alcohol or drugs.
Like the Gerasenes, we need our alcoholics,
our homeless. And we need our violence against them, or think we do. And they
usually can’t see beyond the mechanism that imprisons us, too, so they
continue to harm themselves for the sake of the system.
There’s plenty of Good News here,
though. If we but open our eyes to the trap that holds us, Jesus can and will
deliver us. We cannot do it on our own. The moment we try to free ourselves,
we do it at the expense of the other. But the power of Christ, present to
us in the Spirit, has the power to deliver us. God will be our deliverer.
Anthropological Reading
Girard has a very important discussion
of this text in The
Scapegoat, chapter 13. We will develop our insights from this chapter
so if you have Girard’s book we encourage you to read this chapter as
a context for our discussion today.
In Year B we had occasion to explore
Jesus’ exorcisms and to illuminate the function and role of The Satan
within mimetic theory. We suggested that rather than remove Satan into the
transcendent, mimetic theory places the Satan squarely in the midst of anthropology.
This has a two fold benefit; first, it removes the notion of the Satan from
the transcendent, and thus from God, and second it forces us as humans to
acknowledge that the satanic element within creation stems from us humans.
This radicalization of evil has as its byproduct the elimination of evil as
a metaphysical category and the revelation of human ‘sin’ as its
origin. When we understand ourselves, we will see that no matter how religious
we are, no matter how pious or holy, we are still ensnared by the satanic
character of negative mimesis. Whatever the level all we have to do is to
look at those whom we imitate. Why do we want what we want? Whose desires
are we imitating as we live our daily life? Which voice is it on the radio
or TV or in our heads that is telling us what we want? Where in our lives
do we secretly yearn for this or that, riches, power, a Hollywood romance,
a luxury car, a grander home, higher status, the ability to consume all we
see before us, etc., etc. The list is long and deep, mimetic desire has its
tangled roots buried in our lives.
The satanic entangles us on many levels.
Jesus throughout his ministry engages them all. He critiques economic desire
in his renunciation of the quest for mammon (Matt 6). He challenges religion
by his action in the temple, exposing the substitutional and representational
nature of sacrifice (John 2). He threatens the political powers by revealing
the new kingdom and the reign of love (Matt 13, Luke 15). He overcomes the
spiritual realm by his refusal to be tempted and his casting out of Satan
(Matt 4). He engages the mimetic character of social oppression in his announcement
of the eschatological jubilee (Luke 4). He rejects intellectual mimesis by
overturning the false hermeneutic or mythical knowledge of his opponents (Luke
20). When we acknowledge the Satan as the ‘non real’ reality of
the mimetic victimage mechanism (or as Barth says, ‘the impossible possibility’),
then Jesus’ entire ministry comes into focus and the place of evil in
the world finally makes sense. More so, the conquest of Satan makes sense
in the total context of Jesus’ mission to reveal the darkness of the
‘powers and principalities.’
The Luke 8 text demonstrates the entangled
character of the demoniac and the community. Girard observes that the Gerasenes
had to resort to ‘violence’ (chains and fetters) in order to subdue
the demoniac. This is their best effort, their remedy (pharmakos) for the
poison (pharmakon) that afflicts the possessed. “The violence of the
Gerasenes is hardly reassuring for the possessed. Reciprocally, the violence
of the possessed disturbs the Gerasenes. As always, each one tries to end
violence with a violence that should be definitive but instead perpetuates
the circularity of the process. A symmetry can be seen in all of these extremes,
the self-laceration and running among the tombs on the one hand, the grandiloquent
chains on the other. There is a sort of conspiracy between the victim and
his torturers to keep the balance in the game because it is obviously necessary
to keep the balance of the Gerasene community.” (The Scapegoat).
This is the ultimate seduction: we believe
we need our victims (those we can blame) and our victims believe they need
us. The finger pointing back and forth between victim and community becomes
an endless repetition but is necessary for the entire group to maintain its
equilibrium. Why then, does the demoniac torture himself? “The possessed
does violence to himself as a reproach to the Gerasenes for their violence.
The Gerasenes return his reproach with a violence that reinforces his and
somehow verifies the accusation and counteraccusation that circulate endlessly
within the system. The possessed imitates these Gerasenes who stone their
victims, but the Gerasenes in return imitate the possessed. A mirror relationship
of doubles links the persecutors who are persecuted and the persecuted who
persecutes. This is an example of the reciprocal relationship of mimetic rivalry.”
(The Scapegoat)
In modern terms we might ask the question:
what is demon possession? What does it mean to say that someone is possessed
by the ‘powers of darkness?’ Are we to think of the Medieval Lucifer
or the Hollywood Exorcist? Neither, really, for both of these have in common
the ‘transcendent Satan’ that is the projection of the myth of
religion. Satan is not another principle beside God, a divine sort of yang
to balance God’s yin. Although the Satan appears to be such in most
cosmic mythological systems, in actuality, the Satan is the structuring principle
of victimage, the principle which arises from within (and begets) human consciousness.
We sense the need to make the Satan a transcendent being because we stand
in awe of evil, horrified by its tremendum. Yet, if we are honest, we, like
Jesus, can begin to see that a critical component of the divine revelation
in Christ is precisely the destructuring of the Satan and the removal of Satan
from a divine to an anthropological category. Satan is the spiritual condition
of humanity beset by mimetic rivalry. Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall
from heaven as lightning.” No longer shall Satan be considered an element
of the ‘heavenly court’ but be demystified and revealed as truly
human.
Like the Gerasenes, we too have our ‘demoniacs’;
our scapegoats that keep our families, our communities and our nations in
some sort of balance. Like the Gerasenes we use “good violence”
to limit bad violence. And like the Gerasenes we cannot imagine how we might
do without our good violence or our scapegoats. We would prefer that Jesus
not redeem our victims. We do not want to forgive them. If they are caught
up in the pathology of their victimizing they may well not desire to be forgiven,
and so we endlessly perpetuate the cycle of violence begun with Cain and Abel.
It takes Jesus, the Son of the Creator abba to show us who we are, what we
are like and it takes Jesus to deliver us from the madness of our mimesis.
If, with the New Testament, we are to
bear witness to Jesus ‘conquering the powers’ (as e.g., Col 2:13ff),
we must rethink the place of Satan in our theologies, particularly in our
atonement theories. The satisfaction theory of the atonement, where God pours
wrath out on Jesus so Jesus might pay for our sins, requires a transcendent
Satan who functions as a heavenly Prosecutor, as the finger of God who points
out all of our sin for which we must pay. The doctrine of the satisfaction
view of the atonement is a complete myth, the highest expression of the '‘Christian
myth.’ On the other hand, if we hear the New Testament aright, we can
still refer to the conquering of Satan, but now it is of a piece with the
conquering of sin and death. That is, we may appreciatively use the Christus
Victor model of the atonement to expose the ‘darkness’ of negative
mimesis and the Exemplary model of the atonement to illumine positive mimesis.
If we do this, we can have a complete understanding of the atonement that
is congruent with all of the other actions and teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.
As long as we keep on justifying violence
(seeing Satan as a ‘double’ of God), we will fail in our preaching
of the gospel. We will not be able to free ourselves from the mimetic possession
that afflicts our modern theology, keeps us in chains, and demands more and
more victims with greater urgency.
Historical/Cultural
At this point commentators expose the
limits of their comments because they engage a text like ours today by having
to somehow finesse the discussion around the ‘reality’ of demons.
As moderns, they refer to ‘Jesus’ worldview’ as though it
was antiquated or outdated. So they talk about mental illness or some other
explainable human affliction. They are correct to do this, but they fail to
see that these modern expressions of affliction are phenomena attributable
to victimage (as Michel Foucault has shown in The Madness of Civilization
or Susan Sontag in Illness as Metaphor). Nor do they note the reciprocal character
of the violence in the story and the repetition of violence as necessary for
the continuation of culture (community).
Girard’s demystification of Satan
is the only modern view that adequately follows the New Testament in describing
the expulsion of the Satan from the heavenly court and thus is able to discuss
the Satan in terms both ancient and modern with equal vigor and clarity. Virtually
all commentators are caught up in myth because they are not able to recognize
this essential aspect: Satan is not other than us, Satan is our human ‘dark
side.’
Either
this page has not yet been completed, or we have not found any significant textual
issues in the lectionary texts for this Sunday.
Introductory Articles
We will add articles as we are able,
or as users of the site request them, so if you have suggestions for additional
pieces, please write to us!
"Introduction
to Mimetic Theory"
"Mimesis"
"The
Scapegoat"
"The
Pillars of Culture"
"Jesus"
"The
Four Gospels"
A Brief Introduction
to Luke
What's New:
What's New? on Preaching Peace. (Hover your mouse over to pause cycling) |
1 Kgs 19:1-4,(5-7),8-15a or * Is 65:1-9
Pss 42 & 43 * Ps 22:19-28
Gal 3:23-29
Lk 8:26-39
(1 Kings 19:1-4)
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the
prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying,
"So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life
like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." Then he was afraid;
he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to
Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into
the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked
that he might die: "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for
I am no better than my ancestors."
(1 Kings 19:5-7)
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched
him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He looked, and there at his
head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank,
and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him,
and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for
you."
(1 Kings 19:8-15)
He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty
days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to
a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him,
saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I
have been very zealous for theLORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have
forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets
with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it
away." He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD,
for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong
that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD,
but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the
LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD
was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah
heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the
entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What
are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been very zealous
for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant,
thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone
am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." Then the LORD
said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus."
* (Isaiah 65:1-9)
I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those
who did not seek me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation
that did not call on my name. I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious
people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a
people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering
incense on bricks; who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places;
who eat swine's flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels; who
say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you."
These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long. See, it
is written before me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed
repay into their laps their iniquities and their ancestors' iniquities together,
says the LORD; because they offered incense on the mountains and reviled me
on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their actions.
Thus says the LORD: As the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, "Do
not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it," so I will do for my servants'
sake, and not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah inheritors of my mountains; my chosen shall inherit it, and
my servants shall settle there.
(Galatians 3:23-29)
Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until
faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ
came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come,
we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are
all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there
is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of
you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
offspring, heirs according to the promise.
(Luke 8:26-39)
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a
long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the
tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of
his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High
God? I beg you, do not torment me"-- for Jesus had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept
under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds
and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What
is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered
him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there
on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus
to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came
out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank
into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened,
they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came
out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the
man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and
in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how
the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people
of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for
they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The
man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus
sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God
has done for you. " So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city
how much Jesus had done for him.
Occasional Articles
As with the Introductory Articles, we
will add other articles as time permits or as our readers request. If you
have a suggestion for anything, please let us know.
Michael Hardin
Is the Apocalypse Inevitable?: Native American Prophecy and the Mimetic Theory presented to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2008
Michael's Essay for a Celebration Volume honoring Rene Girard
Michael's Response to Willard Swartley's Covenent of Peace at the November Colloquium and Violence Meeting
Does
Peace Make A Difference? - Michael's essay in response to Rick
Warren's P.E.A.C.E. plan (which somehow never mentions peace).
An Analysis of Rick Warren - Michael's response to "The Purpose Driven Life."
"The
God of Pat Robertson" - a response to Pat Robertson's words
to the people of Dover, PA.
"A
response to Charles Stanley's "A Nation at War"
"Must
God be violent? A Diagnosis and Prescription for Modern Christianity"
The
Scapegoat: Christologies in Conflict - A Study in Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Biblical
Testaments as a Marriage of Convenience: Rene Girard and Biblical Interpretation
Finding
Our Way Home: A Brief Note On The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture
"Does
The Passion of the Christ Preach the Gospel?"
A
sermon for the holiday devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King. (requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader.)
GRASPING
GOD: Philippians 2: 1-11 in the Light of Mimetic Theory
Essay on Brethren Life & Thought to Rene Girard and the Recovery of Early Christian Perspectives (Brethren Life and Thought)
Essay on Mimesis and Dominion to The Dynamics of Violence and the Imitation of Christ in maximus Confessor (St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly)
"EcoSpirituality"
Or What Happens When You Sit Down With A French Literary Critic
Jeff Krantz
Mighty
One or Crucified Messiah? Competing Christologies and the Chiastic
Structure of Mark's Gospel
There's
No Such Thing as the Rapture - A sermon preached at the Church
of the Advent, Westbury (requires Acrobat Reader)
Holy
Scripture and the Consecration of Gene Robinson - a response
to the request of the Windsor Report for a Scriptural rationale. (requires
Adobe's Acrobat Reader)
Worship - The Redemption of Desire by Jeff Krantz
Myth
and Film - a piece written for the City of Angels Film Festival
The Stations of the Cross - Rewritten by Jeff Krantz
A Dramatic Presentation of the Stations of the Cross for Youth by Barb Fabijan-Waddell
Escaping
the Power of "My" - A NonViolent Approach to Stewardship
Preaching
Peace in Hollywood: The Theologies of Terminator, Lord of the Rings, and the
Matrix
V
for Vendetta - The Name Says It All A review of the movie.
Essays, Sermons and Liturgical Pieces by Friends of Preaching Peace
"Jesus and the Gibeonites: Reading the Bible from the Perspective of the Hidden Victim" by James Warren.
Mark Heim's "No More of This" - A hymn on Nonviolent Atonement
Kate Layzer's "No More of This" - A hymn on Nonviolent Atonement (and inspiration for Mark Heim's hymn!)
Alan Cork, "Transformation" in L'Arche: A Mimetic Account presented to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2008
"The Wisdom of God's Peace" a sermon by Jim Amstutz, co-pastor of Michael's church.
Girard's Christology - Per Bjornar Grande
Violence, Anarchy and Scripture: Jacques Ellul and Rene Girard - Matthew Patillo
Comparing
Plato's Understanding of Mimesis to Girard's - Per Bjorner Grande
C. Frank Terhune, an Easter Sermon: "God's Big But" (no kidding!)
Gerald Biesecker-Mast's paper from Theologia Pacis on Pacifist Gospel Epstimology.
An essay by the Rev. John Hill on Mimetic Theory and Catechesis
