The God-man, revelation, and the Rich Man in Luke 16 -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 12:20:53 03/02/08 Sun
Author: Erin Risch
Subject: The God-man, revelation, and the Rich Man in Luke 16

I was rereading the passage in Things Hidden about Christ's divinity, and pondering first whether Jesus had to be divine and then whether he had to be human. I'm not sure if Girard ever says this, but it seems like Christ had to be human because God had always been revealing anti-violence (especially by chronically forgiving the Hebrews, since forgiveness is adopting an nonreciprocal stance towards violence done against you), but more revelation was needed. Now, Girard says that Christ coming and preaching the Kingdom of God could have been revelation enough, and had the people accepted it, there would have been no crucifixion and no apocalypse announced. So Christ's death on the cross was yet another revelatory measure.

This reminded me of the rich man in Luke 16:

He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' (Luke 16:27-31)

We talked in class about how the rich man is attempting to place the blame on God for his torment and his brothers' potential torment, and about how the question has always been one of repentance. But what struck me this time was the final verse: "they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." That could easily refer to Christ himself. This passage seems to privilege Dr. Jackson's reading of the Old Testament over Girard's. Christ here is a continuation of the same revelation (i.e., "Repent!") that has been given for centuries.

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Replies:

Re: The God-man, revelation, and the Rich Man in Luke 16 -- Jfish, 18:52:20 03/02/08 Sun
- Re: The God-man, revelation, and the Rich Man in Luke 16 -- Erin Risch, 06:03:55 03/03/08 Mon
  - Re: The God-man, revelation, and the Rich Man in Luke 16 -- Cara, 15:14:21 03/09/08 Sun