I See Satan Fall Like Lightning – Rene’ Girard

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning – Rene’ Girard

Summary of Basic Thesis/Argument:

Girard contends that the Christian Bible “unveils the process of imitative desire leading to conflict and violence, and its distinctive narratives reveal at the same time that God takes the part of the victims” in this process (page x). In fact, God became the victim when the “Word” became flesh (page x). Girard shows that Christianity and Judaism served to “unconceal” the scapegoat mechanism that is concealed within mythology, by demystifying scapegoating through the revelation that springs forth from the fact of Jesus’ innocence (page 3). By moving through various biblical narratives, Girard seeks to illustrate that the Christian story posits that “all imprisonment in sacred violence is violence done to Christ. Humankind is never the victim of God; God is always the victim of humankind” (page 191). And yet, through the Resurrection, God has overcome this violence, and defeated the powers arrayed against God’s love by exposing the mimetic cycles at work in the world.

Analysis:

Girard begins his work by sketching his conception of mimetic desire. He says that the bible presents a notion of desire that has been largely unrecognized. The Ten Commandments introduce this perspective on desire as the commands build to their climax in the second half of the Decalogue. The last command delivers “a fundamental revolution in the understanding of desire” by showing the necessity of a third party “who gives value” to the objects of desire (page 9).

On the other hand, Girard shows that one of the main differences between God (both the Father and Jesus) and humanity rests in the fact that Jesus does not desire greedily. Jesus and the Father exhibit “detached generosity” that avoids mimetic rivalries. Instead, Jesus cautions his followers to be on guard against “skanddon” or its verb “skanddizein” which means, in a sense “to limp” because of stumbling or colliding into something repeatedly. Girard encourages the reader to notice the addictive nature of scandals (stumbling blocks) that humanity cannot seem to avoid because of the cycles of mimetic desire that causes us to spiral downward.

Girard then describes the cycles of mimetic violence that occur because of the paradox that resistance to this violence (which in modern times has been aided by the illusion of individualism) has itself been brought about through its continual “reenactment” (page 20). Girard shows how the mimetic cycle builds until a point “when the polarizing scandal remains on the stage” and the community is “mobilized against one and the same individual” (page 23). This mobilization reestablished the unity of the community through the “substitution” that comes about “spontaneously [and] invisibly” (page 25). This process is the result of a “mimetic contagion that explains the hatred of the masses” for the individual who is sacrificed to bring peace (page 26).

After describing how the cycle of mimetic desire occurs and what it causes, Girard directs his focus to “Satan.” For Girard, Satan represents the opposite of Jesus. Satan is the deceiver and force behind the lies that form the foundation of mimetic crises in society. Through a detailed description of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of John chapter 8 regarding Satan as liar, and ultimately a murdered from the beginning, who is behind the “false accusation, [and] unjust condemnation of an innocent victim” (page 41), Girard shows how the bible provides an “anthropological substructure of the Passion [of Christ]” which must be noticed in order to have a “true theology of the incarnation” (page 43).

Girard then moves on to present a contrast between the bible’s presentation of the death of Jesus with how mythology presents the sacrificial deaths of victims. Initially, Girard goes back in the biblical narrative to show that the death of Abel at the hands of Cain, represents the bible’s “interpretation of all founding myths” (page 83). These founding myths serve to establish civilization, and yet have a detrimental effect because of the  violence that rests at the bedrock of civilization (page 95). These collective murders are similar to what befell Jesus. Behind these murders sit the powers and principalities of this world which are both material and spiritual (immaterial) in nature (page 97).

In the third section of the book, Girard explores the specific differences between general mythologies and Christianity. At first he examines the ways mimetic cycles are presented in both the Old Testament and New Testament; however, he contends that whereas the first two phases of the mimetic cycle are present in both testaments (mimetic crises and violence), only the New Testament contains the third phase of the cycle, where the victim is shown to be God (divine). Girard compares and contrasts the biblical stories of Joseph and Job with general mythic stories (concentrating on the story of Oedipus). He shows that the biblical interpretation of the violence showered on victims in memetic cycles is presented as wrong. In each instance within the bible, the victims are shown to be innocent, and often rise up to protest their innocence (page 117).

Girard maintains that the uniqueness of the biblical gospel witness is that the “good news” presented in the bible shows the God of the Old Testament “[assuming or taking on] the role of the single victim, and makes possible, for the first time, the full disclosure of the single victim mechanism (page 130). Girard draws the reader’s attention to the gospel of Luke’s description of the interplay between Pilate and Herod in presenting the subtle effect of their participation in the unjust murder of Jesus as bringing about their reconciliation. The death of Jesus exposes the lie that Satan has sought to conceal since “the foundation of the world” (pages 139-140). Girard makes the very interesting and important point that “[t]he powers are not put on display because they are defeated, but they are defeated because they are put on display” (page 143).  He maintains that “the life and deeds and teaching of Christ…[and his] love and suffering reveal our violence for what it is” (page 143). The triumph of God is manifest in the love of God which reveals the falsity of Satan and the violence that results from the lies of the principalities and powers.

Finally, Girard examines the term scapegoat and ties it to the idea of sacrificial lamb. He contends that given the prevalence of our more modern notions of scapegoating, and awareness of the plight of victims in general, our individual and collective scapegoating mechanisms have become much more “subtle” (page 159). This subtly has tended to lie under the surface until it has exploded into the modern genocides that have plagued humanity in recent years on a horrendous scale. Though we have moved beyond many of the archaic rituals of ancient times that surrounded scapegoat expulsions and sacrifices, we are usually most concerned about victims that “allow us to condemn our neighbors” (page 164).

Society’s concern for victims, according to Girard, is often expressed in a “radicalizing” concern that is “anti-Christian” (page 179). In the effort to escape Christian influence and promote a tolerance that sees religion as “complicit in the forces of persecution,” the modern neo-pagan Anti-Christ “boasts of bringing to human beings the peace and tolerance that Christianity promised but has failed to deliver” (page 181). This Neo-paganism views the morality promoted by Christianity “as intolerable violence” against its notion of happiness that is pursued through the “unlimited satisfaction of desires, which means the suppression of all prohibitions” (page 181). When combined with the modern proliferation of technology and consumer goods, which to some extent have weakened mimetic rivalries in this area, Christian moral law is perceived as “an instrument of repression and persecution” (page 181).

Girard concludes by directing his focus to the importance of Jesus’ Resurrection in breaking the “power of mimetic unanimity” and the “violent contagion” that results from the cycles of mimetic desire (page 189). Girard contends that Resurrection is more than a “prodigious transgression of natural law” but the result of the power that is superior to the violence at the root of the mimetic cycles, the power of the Holy Spirit. We see this power in parallel fashion within the New Testament narratives of the conversions of both Peter and Paul. Girard maintains that “what the two converts become capable of seeing, thanks to their conversions, is the violent social instinct, the adherence to the will of the crowd, which neither knew possessed him. This is the violent contagion that compels us all to participate in the Crucifixion” (page 191).

Strengths/Weaknesses in the Book and Questions:

Of the many elements that I found helpful in Girard’s work, one of the most interesting was his treatment of the Ten Commandments and the light that the tenth command sheds on our understanding of desire. His contention that this command exposes our relationship to and reliance on a third party is very important to gaining a better understanding of the powers and hidden forces undergirding mimetic desire that work behind the scenes in leading humanity to hatred and violence.

However, in my opinion, Girard’s focus on the importance of the Resurrection as “the spectacular sign of the entrance into the world of a power superior to violent contagion” stands as his most significant insight (page 189). After showing how archaic religion’s view of violent contagion as having divine power was a reasonable perspective, Girard argues that only through the power of the Resurrection of Jesus could this power of violence be broken, and the “sacrificial forms” that were part of all of human history could be redeemed and surpassed (page 187). Girard’s trenchant examination of several biblical stories from both the Old Testament and New Testament enables him to build to his wide ranging conclusions regarding the enlightenment that comes to humanity because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

The brevity of this book forces Girard to narrow his attention to a limited range of subjects related to his primary focus on mimetic violence and the forces behind the scapegoat mechanism at the heart of humanity’s problem with “desire and its consequences” (page ix).  As a result, at various points, Girard will make startlingly intense statements that have wide ranging implications that to a great extent are just left hanging, with limited if any exploration of their implications. For example, Girard says that “[u]nanimity in human groups is rarely a vehicle for truth, more often it is nothing but a mimetic, tyrannical phenomenon” (page 118). This is but one example of several, where it seems as if the implications of the statement scream out for more probing. Nonetheless, given the tight scope of the book, this lack of further probing seems understandable, if not prudent.