History as Apocalypse

Randy encouraged me to post an occasion excerpt from the manuscript on which I am now working. I cannot let him do all the work on the weblog after all. So here are a few sentences from the piece I have been tweaking today.

We could say that history – in a generic and straightforward sense – began when our most remote ancestors stumbled upon what René Girard has termed the surrogate victim mechanism, the late Paleolithic “discovery” which, over the course of time, our most ancient ancestors slowly learned to ritualize, thereby securing the cultural beachhead which could sustain the fragile order that the scapegoating violence first achieved. Another way of putting this is to say that history began with the discovery of the sacrificial procedures for warding off the apocalypse, the latter defined as violence for which there is no adequate arresting or quarantining mechanism. Subsequent ritual re-enactments of this procedure functioned to continually ward off or postpone the apocalypse thus understood. History in the rich biblical sense, on the other hand, begins -- on Mount Moria -- with the attenuation of these same cultural mechanisms for postponing the apocalypse. In this sense, the beginning of history in the biblical sense is the beginning of the apocalypse in the sense of uncontrollable violence.

"When sacrifice disappears," writes Girard, "all that remains is mimetic rivalry, and it escalates to extremes." Well, that's not all that remains. For the same Gospel that undermines the "sacrificial protections" that ward off and postpone the apocalypse brings about a conversion of the heart and a restoration of relationships distorted by sin. This is the leaven that works inconspicuously to fashion a new order of things, a culture of love based, not on sentimentality, but on truth.

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 44

If this doesn't make you cry ... nothing will

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 43

Historiography...continued

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 42

What is historiography?

The SF Examiner article referenced in this excerpt may be found HERE.

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 41

Damascus - the locale of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and in 1995, a Time magazine interview with Fathi Shakaki....

The Time magazine article/interview may be found HERE.

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 40

Gil references the following book in this excerpt:

Shahbaz Bhatti 1968 - 2011

'I only want a place at the feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my actions to speak for me and say that I am a follower of Jesus Christ'

No doubt most of those who come to this blog will already be aware of the recent murder of Shahbaz Bhatti. I had read the newspaper account and listened to NPR's story last week. However, I came across another blog over the weekend that contained some short videos of Mr. Bhatti that I felt would be appropriate to direct attention to.


The link to the blog Bangor to Bobbio is HERE


Resquiescat in pace

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 39

The conundrum of "Modernity"....what is it? And what follows 'post-modernity'?

Jeff Hendrix

My old friend Jeff Hendrix was interviewed on the "Journey Home" program on EWTN earlier this week. It was a marvelous interview. Jeff is an extraordinary man and a model Catholic. He will be undergoing yet another surgery next week. Please keep him in your prayers.

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 38

Continuing with 'the need for faith' in the Famished Craving series, the vine and branches discourse in John 15...

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 37

For those who may be interested in a couple of musical interpretations of John 15:1-8
I offer the following links:

Reverend Gary Davis

Arvo Pärt

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 36

Ignatius of Antioch, martyr



On the old sacred system as well as post-modern nihilism:

There is not one element of this distorted mysticism that does not have its luminous counterpart in Christian truth. - René Girard

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 35

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 34

fame's protean display: "desperately sacrificial" - "desperately individualistic" - "desperately suicidal"

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 33

Modern Palestine, Samson Agonistes, and fame...continued

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 32

The text with commentary of the Milton poem Samson Agonistes is available online HERE

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 31

Here is a link to the original New York Times article Gil references in this excerpt:

Palestinian Martyrs: Defiant and So Willing

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 30

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 29