Bloodless Atonement?

A Theological and Exegetical Study of the Last Supper Sayings

Benjamin J. Burkholder

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781532605710
  9781532605734
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532605727
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

Does the Messiah have to die to pay for his people's sins? Is the cross of Jesus an atoning sacrifice? In recent decades a burgeoning number of theologians have answered the aforementioned questions in the negative. In fact some, like Rene Girard, have gone so far as to assert that seeing the cross as an atoning sacrifice undermines the very essence of the New Testament Gospels. While Girard and others following in a similar vein have offered provocative alterations to soteriology that no longer need Jesus's death to acquire forgiveness from God, does a bloodless atonement have biblical support? Does a nonviolent understanding of the atonement harmonize with the Gospels? This particular volume answers these questions with a fresh look at the Synoptic portraits of the Last Supper accounts. In them Jesus expounds upon the significance of his death by using the Passover symbols of bread and wine. More importantly, in these passages in the Gospels we find the fullest articulation of how Jesus's death benefits his followers. Holding a wealth of dense theological riches, these passages provide theological parameters that can inform contemporary soteriological development, especially that which appeals to the New Testament for its basis. Conversant with both biblical studies and contemporary theology, the work seeks to bring the best of both fields into conversation in productive new ways.

1

Girard’s Soteriology and Salvation History

Trying to summarize Girard’s work is a daunting affair for it comprises a robust synthesis of various fields of study. In fact, his interdisciplinary approach has been so fascinating for countless thinkers because it weaves together literature, philosophy, ethnology, and biblical studies. Nevertheless, Girard’s primary contributions can be distilled into three main theses that constitute his mimetic theory. The opening half of the chapter will summarize Girard’s mimetic theory, which constitutes the essential core of Girard’s thought and his soteriology. At the same time, these theses also inform how Girard reads the Christian Bible. The latter half of this chapter consequently sketches Girard’s account of salvation history as contained within the Christian Bible, beginning with the Old Testament and culminating in the New Testament. As Christians before him, Girard affirms that a unique stage of salvation history is attained in Christ.

Introduction to Girard

Mimetic Desire

Girard’s soteriological conclusions are built upon three integrated theses regarding the nature of humanity and the Bible’s revelation of this truth. Since his soteriology comes in the final thesis, the first two are necessary precursors for understanding his soteriology. Girard articulated the first of these theses—that human desire is mimetic—in his first major work, Deceit, Desire, and the Novel. In this work, Girard observed that the great literary masters like Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Proust, Shakespeare, and Stendahl all articulate an understanding of human desire that departs from the common notion that humans autonomously choose their desires and that desires proceed directly from the desiring subject to a desired object. As Girard describes it, human desire is essentially “triangular”—hence, not a linear connection of subject to object—because an individual’s desires are induced by the desires of another person, who functions as a model.1 Because a valued or esteemed model desires a particular object, others come to desire the same object, not because it is inherently valuable, but because it possesses value in the eyes of others. One has to look no further than the advertising on television to see some truth in his proposal.2 Every day glamorous and attractive people introduce us to products and services that we have survived without. However, seeing the products being valued and modeled by someone else with a higher social status often evokes desires for such objects within the viewers. In light of this discovery, which he finds present in the great novelists, Girard concludes that humans, most often unconsciously, pattern their desires after the objects—and these range from physical objects to the more intangible “objects” like beauty or wisdom—that others already desire or possess.3 Thus, Girard’s first thesis offers an innovative understanding of human desire.

Scapegoat Mechanism

While mimetic desire can occur apart from conflict, the fact that other people induce one’s desires easily leads to conflict between the model and the follower when both individuals converge on the same object.4 This leads to the second important thesis of Girard’s anthropology, namely, that mimetic desire can and will eventually escalate into widespread social conflict to such a degree that resolution can only be found through what will be called throughout as the “scapegoat mechanism.”

For Girard, the convergence of two individuals on the same object or status of being mutually reinforces the desire for a particular object.5 The more the other desires the object of contention, the more it is deemed valuable, further augmenting one’s own desire for the object. Such contests are unlikely to remain isolated between two individuals. They, in turn, serve as models for other people as well. The more people involved in the mimetic contagion, the more compelling and attractive it is to the others in the community.

As the rivalry increases, people are likely to lose sight of the objects they originally desired and become more focused on supplanting the other person in what Girard—at least in his earlier works—terms the switch from “acquisitive mimesis” to “conflictual mimesis.”6 As the social conflict spreads its tentacles ever wider, the entire community is threatened with absolute decimation in the “war of all against all.”7 At the peak of a mimetic conflict, rivalries become much more volatile and the crowd can exchange its object of hate quite quickly. Near the zenith of the conflict, “the opposition of everyone against everyone else is replaced by the opposition of all against one.”8 Girard believes that: “ . . . it is inevitable that at one moment the entire community will find itself unified against a single individual.”9 At this point, the wild pogrom suddenly morphs from a war of all against all to a “war of all against one” as it arbitrarily pins the guilt for the conflict on a single individual.10 The community, unanimously united against a solitary victim, projects the guilt for the community’s problems onto it, believing “in the unshakable conviction that it has found the one and only cause of its trouble.”11 With unassailable conviction, the community condemns the “guilty” one, the scapegoat. The execution—or sacrifice—of the presumed culprit does in fact pacify the community, at least temporarily. The presumed reason for their conflict disappears, and this only serves to substantiate that the victim was indeed the culprit. Hence, the scapegoat mechanism is born, and it functions as a means of purging conflict and violence from a community.

According to Girard, the scapegoat mechanism not only serves to expunge conflict and violence in a communit...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Girard’s Soteriology and Salvation History
• Chapter 2: Reading the Bible With the Girardians
• Chapter 3: Jesus as Savior in Which Story? (Part 1)
• Chapter 4: Jesus as Savior in Which Story? (Part 2)
• Chapter 5: The Cross of Christ in Mark
• Chapter 6: Matthew and Jesus’ Death for the Forgiveness of Sin
• Chapter 7: The Cross, Covenant, and Forgiveness in Luke
• Chapter 8: Assessing the Biblical and Theological Foundations of Girard’s Soteriology
• Chapter 9: Girard, Renewing the Covenant, and Ways Forward
• Bibliography