Why Girard discovered the gospel's sacrificial mechanism -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 20:48:13 02/24/08 Sun
Author: Jfish
Subject: Why Girard discovered the gospel's sacrificial mechanism

Ok, I'm not sure why Girard happened to be the first one to truly see the mechanism of sacrifice in the gospels, but since he never got around to answering that, I'll hazard a guess to what he'd say.

First of all, we don't need to see an entire unveiling of the mechanism to understand that Christ isn't playing by their rules. He offered himself up unresisting, like a lamb going to the slaughter. All we really need to understand is to follow Christ's example as a model. His example was met by Peter, Paul, and Stephen. We could do the same.

Secondly, Girard would suggest that the earliest Christians saw more in the incarnation and Christ as model than in his death. The fish was just as common as the cross, I think. More importantly, many of them said that if Adam hadn't sinned, Christ would still have become incarnate. So there was a proper understanding of this tradition, and that understanding is still recurrent many parts of the church.

Lastly, I think Girard would suggest that Western Culture has turned from that understanding for many reasons, two that I can think of. The first is the mistranslation we saw in class. The second is that many people still operated under the sacrificial mechanism, and by not fully understanding the Christian message, reintroduced these concepts into the church.

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