Re: Terms of Use -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:16:01 04/17/08 Thu
Author: Hwaet!
Subject: Re: Terms of Use
In reply to: Caitlin 's message, "Re: Terms of Use" on 15:02:07 04/16/08 Wed

We may be talking past each other. Yes, sacrifice and substitute are completely different for Girard, because Girard does not see these as the same things. But historical Christianity does. To that you make a good point "that we SHOULD make the difference in the terms of use instead of following their common (and often incorrect) usage." I'm only suggesting that it this is more difficult than it sounds. When you say in your last post, "What if instead of 'sacrifice' we called it 'substitution?," you imply (or at least I infer) that the word "substitution" does not for most Christians carry 100% of the implications of "sacrifice." You could give a sermon and use the word "substitute" the whole time and a lot of Calvinists would leave church happy that day. But if you stop and say, "Today I'll be using the word 'subsitute' in a much different way..." then you have a lot more to explain than your choice of words--you'll need to launch into Girard's or Jackson's or another non-sacrificial reading of the Gospels. And at the end everyone may understand your use of the word "substitute," but the old use of the word won't go away, simply because the word "sacrifice" implies substitute, even though the word "substitue" does not imply sacrifice. So then you're left with two starkly different meanings of the word "substitute," and that's fine, because it makes for interesting conversation (such as this one), but I think you started this conversation looking for a word that will avoid confusion, and "substitute" is not that word.

To this point, Girard says few lines earlier in the paragraph you quote, "We must beware of calling his action sacrificial, even if we then have no words or categories to convey its meaning. It seems that "substitute" is one of those words that fails to convey a non-sacrificial reading. He continues: "The very lack of appropriate language suggests that we are dealing with a type of conduct for which there is no precedent in the realm of mythology or philosophy, or indeed in the pragmatic sphere" (241-2).

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: Terms of Use -- Caitlin, 06:23:27 04/18/08 Fri