Violence and the kingdom of God: Introducing the anthropology of Rene Girard

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 1998 by Marr, Andrew

The prophets were opposed to all of the sacrificial rites in Israel. Amos was not just offering a polite corrective when he proclaimed the oracle: "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies" (Amos 5:21). Raymund Schwager says, "If Girard's theory is correct. . . according to its basic structure, the sacrificial cult is a ritual repetition of the scapegoat mechanism, then it cannot by itself pave the way to the true God."1o What was needed were people who would "seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow" (Is. 1:17).

Complaints of collective violence are voiced many times in the psalms from the standpoint of the victim. The Psalmist is often surrounded by enemies who combine violence with lying: "More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; many are those who would destroy me, my enemies who accuse me falsely. What I did not steal must I now restore?" (Ps. 69:4). Note that the Psalmist does not claim to be innocent of all wrong doing, but does claim to be innocent of the charges at hand. It also needs to be said that the cries for vengeance that accompany many of these complaints, though understandable, show that the Psalmist is still caught in the encompassing violence that requires victims. The scenario of all against one reaches its most powerful statement, of course, in the Songs of the Suffering Servant in Deutero Isaiah. As in the complaints in the psalms, it is stated clearly that the Servant of Yahweh was persecuted without cause. "By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people . . . although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth" (Is. 53:8-9). These passages prophesy the Passion of Christ in the sense that it was predicable that when the Logos came into the world, the world would not know him.

The Lamb of God

Jesus preached the Kingdom of God in an attempt to gather everybody into the all-encompassing love of God. Through parables such as the mustard seed (Mk. 4:30ff), Jesus "taught that this coming is coming [as] a pure gift from God."1 At the same time, Jesus challenged his hearers to take a profound responsibility, not only for their actions but for their inner passions.

Like the prophets, Jesus warned his listeners of the connection between mimetic rivalry and violence. "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation" (Lk. 20:46-47). The suggestion here is that the competitive jockeying for position results in the oppression of the most helpless members of the society, the widows and orphans, whom God cares for. The mimetic rivalry among Jesus' disciples could hardly receive more emphasis than it does, as these squabbles over who is the greatest are coupled with Jesus' predictions of his upcoming suffering and death. In response to this rivalry, Jesus posits a helpless child, such as the disciples tried to keep away from Jesus, as a model of the kingdom of God (Lk. 9:46-47).