What I find helpful with thinkers like Girard is to remind myself that their insights, no matter how comprehensively they may seem to explain things, are really only ever imperfect models for our complicated existence in this world. As such, we should feel free to set them aside when they don't seem to match the terrain of reality, or to help us make sense of things. Their models may be insightful for others, but not for ourselves, at least in a particular moment. Or, to put it another way, they're maps, and we should never mistake the map for the territory - no map is ever exact unless it is 1:1, and then it become unwieldy reality itself. And sometimes one type of map is more descriptive of things than another, depending on what it is we're encountering, or trying to understand. As you say, it's easy to become a bit of a fundamentalist, which is essentially the act of trying to make the terrain fit the map. I've found Girard a struggle myself - at times he seems to be exactly describing reality, at times he's so abstruse that I'm lost. Personally, sometimes I find Douglas Adams a better guide - just laugh at the absurdity without necessarily trying to find hidden meanings.
Hi Jack, I just finally finished listening to David Cayley's series on Girard that you linked in this post. I'm slow. I think he's brilliant, and what's even more rare, humble and honest. Like you, I am fighting the urge to bubble up with amazing connections to everything going on all around me. My hubby was drawn in to a "drama" at the town level where one of the selectmen (the most sincere and wise one of the 5) was scapegoated (forced to resign). The whole situation was so precisely suited to illustrate the psychological forces Girard wrote about. I really appreciate the 'ambivalence' he expresses about things like progress, capitalism, violence etc. I've only just begun the other link with the two younger guys discussing him. It seems clear to me that these insights are deeply Christian. If used as an interesting or helpful philosophy, as they seem to be doing, it is understandable that they conclude that Girard leaves one hopeless. I yelled at the screen when they said that, though. He doesn't leave us hopeless, he shows that we must hope in God and the salvation we are offered. In a real sense, he clarifies that hopes of reforming the world are vain, but hoping to follow in Jesus' steps is a very real hope. Thanks for sharing your journey here so I can tag along at my own pace. --Clara
Hi Jack, very much enjoying your posts. I respect the route you are on and look forward to further updates from your journey. I don't know Girard at all but feel glad you have found some enlightenment from him and i will pray it leads you further.
Jack, Girard has been a thinker who has deeply shaped me over the years. If im honest, I find reading theologians reading of his work more accessible in understanding his thinking, one theologian I have found deeply helpful is the Roman Catholic James Alison, his first book knowing Jesus is worth a look at.
Thank you Jack, for your posts, personally I have found them deeply illuminating, with much food for thought.
Jack, you and I have had opposite weeks, yours silent and devoid of others, mine noisy and crowded.
Regarding epiphanies: I enjoy intellectual epiphanies, in the same way I enjoy a good espresso. There is a dopamine hit, a pleasant heightened alertness, but no great change. I might go so far as to say there is nothing I have ever read that has changed my life; only things that I have read that have articulated changes that were already emerging or close to awareness. Good change is a marriage of word and Spirit.
What I find helpful with thinkers like Girard is to remind myself that their insights, no matter how comprehensively they may seem to explain things, are really only ever imperfect models for our complicated existence in this world. As such, we should feel free to set them aside when they don't seem to match the terrain of reality, or to help us make sense of things. Their models may be insightful for others, but not for ourselves, at least in a particular moment. Or, to put it another way, they're maps, and we should never mistake the map for the territory - no map is ever exact unless it is 1:1, and then it become unwieldy reality itself. And sometimes one type of map is more descriptive of things than another, depending on what it is we're encountering, or trying to understand. As you say, it's easy to become a bit of a fundamentalist, which is essentially the act of trying to make the terrain fit the map. I've found Girard a struggle myself - at times he seems to be exactly describing reality, at times he's so abstruse that I'm lost. Personally, sometimes I find Douglas Adams a better guide - just laugh at the absurdity without necessarily trying to find hidden meanings.
Hi Jack, I just finally finished listening to David Cayley's series on Girard that you linked in this post. I'm slow. I think he's brilliant, and what's even more rare, humble and honest. Like you, I am fighting the urge to bubble up with amazing connections to everything going on all around me. My hubby was drawn in to a "drama" at the town level where one of the selectmen (the most sincere and wise one of the 5) was scapegoated (forced to resign). The whole situation was so precisely suited to illustrate the psychological forces Girard wrote about. I really appreciate the 'ambivalence' he expresses about things like progress, capitalism, violence etc. I've only just begun the other link with the two younger guys discussing him. It seems clear to me that these insights are deeply Christian. If used as an interesting or helpful philosophy, as they seem to be doing, it is understandable that they conclude that Girard leaves one hopeless. I yelled at the screen when they said that, though. He doesn't leave us hopeless, he shows that we must hope in God and the salvation we are offered. In a real sense, he clarifies that hopes of reforming the world are vain, but hoping to follow in Jesus' steps is a very real hope. Thanks for sharing your journey here so I can tag along at my own pace. --Clara
Hi Jack, very much enjoying your posts. I respect the route you are on and look forward to further updates from your journey. I don't know Girard at all but feel glad you have found some enlightenment from him and i will pray it leads you further.
Gsrreth
Jack, Girard has been a thinker who has deeply shaped me over the years. If im honest, I find reading theologians reading of his work more accessible in understanding his thinking, one theologian I have found deeply helpful is the Roman Catholic James Alison, his first book knowing Jesus is worth a look at.
Thank you Jack, for your posts, personally I have found them deeply illuminating, with much food for thought.
God bless.
Jack, you and I have had opposite weeks, yours silent and devoid of others, mine noisy and crowded.
Regarding epiphanies: I enjoy intellectual epiphanies, in the same way I enjoy a good espresso. There is a dopamine hit, a pleasant heightened alertness, but no great change. I might go so far as to say there is nothing I have ever read that has changed my life; only things that I have read that have articulated changes that were already emerging or close to awareness. Good change is a marriage of word and Spirit.