The Devil’s Scapegoat
Posted on September 14, 2012 by Brother of Sorrow
Perhaps the most enigmatic and powerful words spoken by Jesus Christ during His lifetime on Earth were the following ones on the Cross, right before His death – “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Mark 15:34). If those words had been spoken by anyone other than the Son of God, we would be justified in concluding that the speaker was blaming God for the torturous death he had been made to suffer. Basically, that person would have been scapegoating God for whatever personal decisions and external circumstances had led him to that dreadful situation.
There are probably a lot of believers and unbelievers alike who think that those words of Jesus were unique to him and have little historical relevance. However, a quick look-up of Psalm 22 in the Bible leads us to the exact same phrase (obviously in Hebrew instead of the Aramaic spoken by Jesus). I want to make clear that what follows is not a heavily researched or widely accepted analysis of the connection between these two questions, but I also feel that readers will see that my admittedly speculative analysis makes a lot of sense.
René Girard is a 20th century French anthropological philosopher who developed the concept of the “scapegoat mechanism“. It was a partial way of explaining how human violence would naturally build upon itself in a society until that particular society found it necessary to blame a single person (or group) for the disorder, instability and suffering that had resulted and “remove” them. Of course, this removal does nothing to address the underlying problem of human evil, and the cycle simply repeats itself.
I believe Psalm 22 could perhaps be considered the poem that best represents Girard’s concept in all of the Bible, perhaps even in all poems ever written. It is not endorsing the idea that scapegoating is a good thing to do for people or for societies, but rather it is poetically demonstrating to us that this mechanism is a fundamental reaction of humans which has been present throughout history, and finds a special relevance when applied to the relationship between human beings and their Creator.
(full post at link above)
Posted on September 14, 2012 by Brother of Sorrow
Perhaps the most enigmatic and powerful words spoken by Jesus Christ during His lifetime on Earth were the following ones on the Cross, right before His death – “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Mark 15:34). If those words had been spoken by anyone other than the Son of God, we would be justified in concluding that the speaker was blaming God for the torturous death he had been made to suffer. Basically, that person would have been scapegoating God for whatever personal decisions and external circumstances had led him to that dreadful situation.
There are probably a lot of believers and unbelievers alike who think that those words of Jesus were unique to him and have little historical relevance. However, a quick look-up of Psalm 22 in the Bible leads us to the exact same phrase (obviously in Hebrew instead of the Aramaic spoken by Jesus). I want to make clear that what follows is not a heavily researched or widely accepted analysis of the connection between these two questions, but I also feel that readers will see that my admittedly speculative analysis makes a lot of sense.
René Girard is a 20th century French anthropological philosopher who developed the concept of the “scapegoat mechanism“. It was a partial way of explaining how human violence would naturally build upon itself in a society until that particular society found it necessary to blame a single person (or group) for the disorder, instability and suffering that had resulted and “remove” them. Of course, this removal does nothing to address the underlying problem of human evil, and the cycle simply repeats itself.
I believe Psalm 22 could perhaps be considered the poem that best represents Girard’s concept in all of the Bible, perhaps even in all poems ever written. It is not endorsing the idea that scapegoating is a good thing to do for people or for societies, but rather it is poetically demonstrating to us that this mechanism is a fundamental reaction of humans which has been present throughout history, and finds a special relevance when applied to the relationship between human beings and their Creator.
(full post at link above)
