Uncovering Idolatry: James Alison in dialogue with Scripture and John of the Cross

University of Malta Faculty of Theology

Mario Gerada

Uncovering Idolatry:

James Alison in dialogue with Scripture and

John of the Cross

Dissertation presented

in part fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts in Spirituality (Carmelite)

Malta

April 2012

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Abstract

‘Uncovering Idolatry’ is a study about the true image of God and false images of him.

One’s own understanding of God has serious implications on an individual and

community level. This study particularly looks at the implications of relating to the true

and living God or to false images of him and how these influence human desires which

can lead to either violence or fraternal love. Idolatry, true image of God, desire and

violence are explored through James Alison’s theology which is brought into dialogue

with biblical texts and John of the Cross’ theology. Envious and rival desires are found

to be deeply problematic forms of attachment that spoil human relationships. At the

same time it is desire itself that can be transformed into life giving attachment, in

imitation of God’s own desire. In this study, God’s desire is found to be a desire for

humans to share life and express fraternal love. Humanity is created for intimacy and

relationships: with God, with one another and with all of creation. However, sin has

changed relationships into a dangerous space. Jesus’ command ‘“Love the Lord your

God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your

neighbour as yourself” (cf. Mt 22, 37-40) is found to be the answer to questions raised

by this study.

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Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 8 Declaration of Authenticity................................................................................................. 9 Prayer ................................................................................................................................ 10 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 11

0.1 The Study ............................................................................................................... 11 0.2 Aim ........................................................................................................................ 12 0.3 Texts Explored in this Study .................................................................................. 12 0.4 René Girard – The Founding Murder .................................................................... 15 0. 5 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 18 0.6 Limitations ............................................................................................................. 19 0.7 Definition of Terms................................................................................................ 20

Chapter 1: Idolatry and the True Image of God as found in James Alison’s Theology .. 22 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 22 1.2 Desire ..................................................................................................................... 23 1.3 Mimesis .................................................................................................................. 25 1.4 The Victim ............................................................................................................. 27 1.5 Scapegoat Mechanism ........................................................................................... 28 1.6 The Principle of Reciprocity .................................................................................. 28 1.7 Violence and Idolatry ............................................................................................. 30 1.8 Revelation .............................................................................................................. 33 1.9 Jesus ....................................................................................................................... 35 1.10 Sermon on the Mount........................................................................................... 39 1.11 Jesus’ Resurrection .............................................................................................. 40 1.12 Forgiveness .......................................................................................................... 41 1.13 Transformation ..................................................................................................... 42 1.14 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 46

Chapter 2: Is Human Sacrifice required by the True Living God? Biblical Perspectives........................................................................................................................................... 47

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 47 2.2 The Character of God as found in the Old Testament ........................................... 48 2.3 Problematic Texts with regards to God’s character in the Pentateuch & Historical Books ............................................................................................................................ 50

2.3.1 Genesis ............................................................................................................ 51 2.3.2 The Historical Books....................................................................................... 54

2.4 Desire, Violence & Murder in the Old Testament ................................................. 56 2.5 Idolatry & True Image of God in the Old Testament ............................................ 61 2.6 Darkness & Transformations in the Old Testament .............................................. 63 2.7 The Character of God as found in the New Testament .......................................... 65 2.8 Jesus’ Desire .......................................................................................................... 67 2.9 Darkness & Transformations in the New Testament ............................................. 69 2.10 The Crucifixion – Idolatry & Conspiracy, Sacrifice or Murder?......................... 71

2.10.1 More of the same… ....................................................................................... 73 2.11 Problematic Texts in the New Testament ............................................................ 75

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2.11.1 Judas ............................................................................................................. 77 2.11.2 Pilate’s Wife .................................................................................................. 78

2.12 Non-Violence ....................................................................................................... 80 2.13 Beyond Darkness, Resurrection - His Image ....................................................... 80 2.14 Universality .......................................................................................................... 82 2. 15 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 83

Chapter 3: Idolatry and the True Image of God as found in John of the Cross ............... 86 3.1 Introduction – John the Poet .................................................................................. 86 3.2 Darkness ................................................................................................................. 91 3.3 Nakedness .............................................................................................................. 96 3.4 Idolatry ................................................................................................................. 101 3.5 Desire & Imitation ............................................................................................... 102 3.6 Non-Violence ....................................................................................................... 104 3.7 Prudence ............................................................................................................... 104 3.8 Growth ................................................................................................................. 105 3.9 Images .................................................................................................................. 105

3.9.1 The Ladder ..................................................................................................... 106 3.9.2 The Garb ....................................................................................................... 107

3.10 God ..................................................................................................................... 108 3.11 The Way ............................................................................................................. 110 3.12 Union.................................................................................................................. 112 3.13 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 113

Chapter 4: James Alison’s Theology in Dialogue with Biblical Texts and John of the Cross’ Theology .............................................................................................................. 115

4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 115 4.2 Idolatry & Violence ............................................................................................. 116 4.3 Sacrifice ............................................................................................................... 121 4.4 Desire ................................................................................................................... 124 4.5 Love ..................................................................................................................... 127 4.6 Beyond us............................................................................................................. 129 4.7 Another kind of God ............................................................................................ 131 4.8 Purification, Punishments, Misunderstandings .................................................... 133 and other Transformations… ...................................................................................... 133 4.9 Crucifixion & Resurrection.................................................................................. 139 4.10 Non-Violence and Forgiveness .......................................................................... 146 4.13 The Demands of Love ........................................................................................ 150 4.15 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 153

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 155 5.1 Overview .............................................................................................................. 155 5.2 Icon ...................................................................................................................... 158 5.3 A Trinitarian Image of God ................................................................................. 162 5.4 The Meaning of Life, the Meaning of Faith ........................................................ 163 5.5 Chastity ................................................................................................................ 165 5.6 A Way Forward.................................................................................................... 167 5.7 Final Comments ................................................................................................... 168

Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 169

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6.1 Primary Sources ................................................................................................... 169 6.2 Other Articles, Books and Studies ....................................................................... 172 6.3 Magisterial and Episcopal Documents................................................................. 181 6.4 Carmelite Sources ................................................................................................ 182

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Dedication

I dedicate this dissertation to:

Annie, my mother, whose visions of liberation

nurtured me throughout my life

and who crossed-over during these studies of mine.

To Carmel (Charles) my father,

Charmaine and Dorianne my sisters

who supported me through the struggles,

ups and downs of finishing this work.

To Richard Woods, James Alison and Gwann Xerri,

the three giants on whose shoulders I humbly stand.

They showed me the art of friendship

and how it can transform everything.

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Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to my supervisor, Rev. Alexander Vella, O.Carm., for his valuable

guidance, support and encouragement. Working with him was an incredible enriching

experience.

I would like to thank Rev. Dr Charlo Camilleri, O. Carm., for his support and caring

guidance and for his dedication towards us all, students of his.

Finally, I would like to show my appreciation to the Faculty of Theology for giving us

the opportunity to study Spirituality and who strived to give us a true experience, not only

at an academic level but also on a personal level. I would also like to thank the Faculty

for its support and understanding towards me whilst going through bereavement.

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Declaration of Authenticity

The undersigned, Mario Gerada, hereby declares that

the research presented in this dissertation is his own

and has never been submitted for any degree

in any other institution.

_____________________________

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Prayer

O Lord my God.

Teach my heart this day

Where and how to find You.

You have made me and re-made me,

And You have bestowed on me

All the good things I possess,

And still I do not know You.

I have not yet done that for which I was made.

Teach me to seek You,

For I cannot seek You

Unless you teach me,

Or find You

Unless You show Yourself to me.

Let me seek You in my desire;

Let me desire You in my seeking.

Let me find You by loving You;

Let me love You when I find You.

St. Anselm

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Introduction

0.1 The Study

Uncovering Idolatry is a study about idolatry and in search of the true image of God. In

this study James Alison’s theology, texts from Scripture and the theology of John of the

Cross, particularly the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night of the Soul are

explored and brought together in dialogue. Since Alison’s theology is based on René

Girard’s anthropology, Girard’s writings are also widely used in this study.

Though in this dissertation idolatry is explored in its various facets through the different

texts, one particular perspective is chosen for the whole dissertation. Alison’s theology

and understanding of idolatry is the starting point of this study, as influenced by René

Girard’s anthropology. Biblical texts were chosen keeping in mind both Alison’s

theology and Carmelite spirituality. Hence, the aim of such a choice was to facilitate

dialogue between James Alison’s theology and Carmelite Spirituality particularly John of

the Cross’ theology. These texts bridge the discussion between the two theologians.

However, Biblical texts selected are also studied on their own and perspectives from

Scripture are brought into this dialogue with Alison’s and John of the Cross’ theology.

At this point I want to clarify that this work is not exegetical work in its classical form as

I am not a biblical scholar and this study does not aim or claim to offer that perspective

on Scripture. Biblical texts selected are stories which inspired the authors I chose to

study. Therefore, the approach of allowing the texts to speak on their own is more for a

‘critical’ approach, asking the following questions when reading them: what are these

texts actually saying? What did René Girard, James Alison and Carmelite Spirituality

find in these texts that inspired them so much? Do these texts contradict or confirm what

these theologians are talking about? Therefore, I tried to allow the texts to speak freely,

answering these questions I had in mind, allowing them to confirm or contradict the

theology discussed in this study.

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0.2 Aim

The aim of this study is to identify characteristics of the true and living God whilst

grasping a deeper understanding of his own desires. All sorts of images of God are

presented to us in various ways. At times it feels that Christians amongst themselves

have difficulty in understanding and agreeing upon who this God is and what his desires

for humanity are.

The aim of this study is to attempt to understand a clearer picture of God as found in

Alison’s theology, revealed in Scripture and in John of the Cross’ theology. Through

these texts I hope to arrive at a clearer understanding of who God reveals himself to be -

as unique and as the one who has no rival.

James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross uncover false notions about God. They

also highlight the implications that such beliefs can have on human behaviour and

relationships. Such an erroneous understanding of God can lead human beings into

serious negative consequences for one’s own life and that of their own community –

violence being one of them. These negative implications can also be seen at play at an

international level. On the other hand a relationship with the true life-giving-living God

enhances the sharing of life and fraternal love. These texts are studied and brought into

dialogue in an attempt to answer the questions raised by this research.

0.3 Texts Explored in this Study

James Alison tells us that the Christian path is a difficult one because it involves

shedding all sorts of idolatry - wrong conceptions about God and violent projections. In

Alison’s theology we find that the biggest lie believed to be sacred is that God requires a

form of worship that involves the sacrifice, exclusion or expulsion of the other. In

Alison’s theology we find that the true image of God is that of loving inclusion offered to

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all of humanity1. This is God’s desire and demand for humanity. Violence, murder,

rivalry, victimizations, exclusions, expulsions and scapegoat mechanisms are only human

fabrications to resolve our own inner violence - the result of sin and humanity’s turning

away from the true living God. There is nothing sacred or divine about these violent

dynamics2.

In Scripture we find different understandings of idolatry, one of them being the worship

of an object as a god. This theme is widely explored in the Old Testament. In fact, the

Old Testament shows us that turning away from worshiping the living God leads to

disaster, violence and also the killing of another person. Because of sin humanity

degenerated into violent behaviour and this brought about the need for laws, demands,

prohibitions and the principle of retribution to contain such violence and avoid chaos in

society. As Chapter Two progresses into the New Testament, idolatry takes another

shape. Jesus, the image of the true living God for Christians, reveals that idolatry has

deeper roots and is located within the desires of the human person. Obeying laws and

observing traditions is not enough. These can become forms of idol worship themselves.

Jesus’ own life shows how those who believed they were servants and guardians of the

Law given by the living God in actual fact only worshiped their traditions and

themselves. They missed the living God in front of them because their desires were

elsewhere. Mostly, it was the poor and the marginalized who recognized Jesus as the Son

of God. However, most of those who recognized him struggled to reach the fullness of

that recognition themselves, as the passion story reveals to us.

At this point I wish to clarify that for the purpose of this study I mainly chose to look at

one aspect of false worship, that of human sacrifice and its effects; how rivalry, envy and

violence lead towards the murder of one’s own brother as presented by Scripture. The

main question that this study struggles with is if the living and true God requires human

sacrifice. When discussing Biblical texts and idolatry I am specifically referring to

human sacrifice. I am also arguing that human sacrifice, including human exclusions and

1 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 92-108. 2 RENÉ GIRARD, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1989, 125-148.

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expulsions are the result of idolatry. The theme of idolatry as found in Scripture is too

vast a subject and could not be covered within this study. As mentioned in the definition

of terms later on in this Chapter, when using the terms idolatry, murder and human

sacrifice I am not only referring to the killing of another human person but am using

these terms in their widest and deeper meaning, that of one person harming and excluding

another human being. At times the term can also refer to the exclusion of God himself.

Going back to Chapter Two, Scripture tells us that one of the greatest struggles for

humanity is fraternal love. Because of sin human relations degenerated into rivalry and

envy. Cain and Abel, Jesus and Judas, Stephen and Saul play within these same

dynamics of fraternal love and hatred, admiration and envy – with rivalry and envious

desire leading one killing the other. Jesus, through the paschal mystery resolves this

fundamental human error once and for all. He opens up the path of life, reveals the

Father as the good and loving Father-Creator towards all humans including those who

murder their own brothers. Jesus’ resurrection brings back to life all victims of the past,

present and future, and lovingly calls to conversion all persecutors and murderers3.

John of the Cross warns us about the various subtle forms and shapes idolatry can take.

He is inspired by scripture, the whole Carmelite tradition and Teresa of Avila. He

explains in detail how any form of attachment which could also be a good one can come

in the way of our relationship with God. He also tells us that religious ceremonies and

spirituality itself can become frivolous forms of idolatry4. Like Elijah, John reveals the

path which leads us towards recognizing the true image of God as a dark journey across

the night. It is a difficult and tiresome path but it leads us to everlasting life. God is

found to be love and his demands for the human person is to imitate that same love5.

All texts point towards the same direction: Universal inclusive fraternal love and sharing

of life. This is only made possible around the crucified, resurrected-victim given back to

3 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 249-279. 4 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Prologue, 1-9. 5 WILFRID MCGREAL, At the Fountain of Elijah. The Carmelite Tradition, NewYork 1999, 53-70.

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us in forgiveness6. True worship happens at his feet on that glorious dawn after the

darkest of moments - his death on the cross. The cross becomes the definitive symbol of

the victory of life over death, of forgiveness freely offered even to persecutors and

murderers. The cross becomes a call to conversion, beckoning us out of our own

violence resolved sometimes overtly and at other times in subtle and hidden ways. The

cross opens up the gate of eternal life that is flowing, abundant, effervescent and ever

lasting. This life is love but it is also a love that is demanding. Its demands are to

embark on the night journey - to be purified of all false images of God and inner

violence. It also demands that we love our brothers and sisters in that same manner we

found God loving us. This is Christian hope and this is the good news.

0.4 René Girard – The Founding Murder

As previously mentioned, Alison’s theology is the main perspective in this study, brought

into dialogue with perspectives from Biblical texts and John of the Cross’ theology. One

of the main foundations of Alison’s theology is René Girard’s anthropology. In this

section I wish to expand on his theory of the founding murder. In Girard’s anthropology

we find other key notions such as mimesis, the victim, scapegoat mechanisms and the

principle of reciprocity. These are explored in more detail in Chapter One.

René Girard, a professor Emeritus at Stanford University, is recognized worldwide for his

theory on human behaviour and culture. His theory has influenced scholars’ around the

world within the fields of literature, anthropology and religion. He has received a

number of prestigious awards amongst them ‘L’Immortel’ by the Académie Franc ̧aise7.

6 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 210, 235-236. 7 A Very Brief Introduction, in Imitatio Integrating the Human Sciences (on-line) : http://www.imitatio.org/mimetic-theory/a-very-brief-introduction.html, [22 August 2011].

http://www.imitatio.org/mimetic-theory/a-very-brief-introduction.html

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In his writings Girard uncovers an important understanding of human dynamics hidden

since the foundation of the world but concealed by human culture, mythological stories,

folklore, traditions and religious beliefs themselves. Girard claims that only the Judeo-

Christian text reveals what is hidden: the founding murder, which is covered by all other

cultures, mythologies and religious traditions. He also claims that it is Jesus who fully

uncovers, reveals and resolves this founding murder through the paschal mystery, though

this same action is already present and at work in the Old Testament8. René Girard also

claims that through the ages and up to this day, Christianity itself, at times, did not fully

understand the message of Jesus’ cross, thus falling into that same old trap – that of using

violence to resolve its own struggles and violent desires, falsely believing it is serving the

divine by doing so. This is never in conformity with the message of Jesus and the will of

the Father9.

René Girard uncovers a basic human dynamic, that of one human being murdering

another human being (his brother) as a means to establish his own kingdom or

civilization. This happens dramatically like in the mythological story of Romolus and

Remus or in more hidden and subtle ways in our everyday lives. The erroneous belief is

that such murder is either necessary or even pleasing to the Divine, falsely believing that

a civilization starting in this manner is favoured by the gods. However, killing one’s own

brother always brings guilt and thus this founding murder has to be covered up and

shrouded in mythology10. The victim becomes a divinity himself, a sacrificial figure

whose sacrifice was required for the foundation of a civilization or the resolution of its

chaotic violent conflict11. For René Girard, folk and mythological stories cover up this

basic universal human dynamic which when uncovered is found to be murder. All stories

serve to divinize the scapegoat-victim who was murdered for no real reason but is now

seen as the one who brought ‘peace’. Because violence has been unburdened and

8 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 3-47; 141-262. 9 Ibid. 10 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 105-138. 11 Ibid.

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‘peace’, described as false by René Girard, has been achieved, the murder is divinized

and explained as necessary and willed by the gods. The victim who was an ordinary

person and simply used as a scapegoat becomes a mythological god himself. For René

Girard this is the basis of religion but this understanding of the divinity is both pacifying

and disturbing, an understanding of god who is both good but demands this kind of

murder-sacrifice to resolve conflict12. Thus, Girard tells us that this understanding of

divinity is false and all forms of this kind of worship is simply idolatry. All this has

nothing to do with the true living God, the one revealed in Scripture13.

René Girard explains how Scripture functions in reverse of the above. The Bible

uncovers this dynamic, it tells us that God does not require human sacrifice and he is not

pleased by one brother killing the other. The story of Cain and Abel is presented in stark

contrast to the story of Romolus and Remus and other similar mythological stories

involving fratricide. In Scripture the murder of Abel is presented for what it is, a sordid

crime and God punishes Cain for it14. It is only later that Jesus resolves this founding

murder hidden since the foundation of the world, as James Alison theologically

elaborates. Jesus becomes like an Abel brought back to life, in forgiveness through the

resurrection. Jesus extends his hand to ‘Cain’, in friendship, beckoning him back, calling

him to conversion, forgiving him and inviting him to share life in peace with his brother

Abel, around him, the real forgiving-victim sacrificed for us by us, given back to us by

God the Father. Peace is to live in this spirit of love that is now fully at work since the

New Civilisation was established in Jesus and by Jesus. This spirit, the intelligence of the

victim15, remains at work up to this day undoing from within all of Cain’s civilizations

founded in murder and hidden since the foundation of the world16.

12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 The Girard Reader, edited by J. G. Williams, New York 1996, 149-153. 15 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 139-161. 16 Ibid, 237-265.

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0. 5 Methodology

James Alison’s theology, as influenced by René Girard’s anthropology is the starting

point and dominant perspective within this study. Chapter One explains in detail

Alison’s theology and also explores further key notions from René Girard’s theory. It

highlights key elements found in Alison’s theology which are later re-read through

biblical texts and John of the Cross’ theology. Finally all elements are brought together

in dialogue in Chapter Four. Alison’s notions of idolatry as hidden within violent subtle

scapegoat mechanisms is another main element explored and discussed throughout this

study. Alison also mentions the dark path that needs to be crossed to be free from false

violent notions about God. This is another dominant element explored through the help

of biblical texts particularly that of Elijah and the writings of John of the Cross.

Biblical texts important to both Alison’s theology and Carmelite Spirituality were

selected for Chapter Two. These biblical texts were studied with the aim of trying to

identify who God is, as revealed within these texts, keeping the main elements identified

in Alison’s theology and Carmelite Spirituality in mind. In Chapter Two I try to identify

characteristics of the living God and his desires for humanity. Scripture reveals in great

detail the consequences for humanity when it turns away from the true and living God.

This is idolatry and it can take many forms. It also has a direct effect on human

relationships. As previously mentioned, for this chapter I only use one particular

perspective to study idolatry, that of human sacrifice. Desire plays a significant part in

this particular reading of idolatry. Therefore, in Chapter Two I try to identify God’s

desires for humanity and humanity’s own desires. Scripture shows us that human desire

can be the path which leads humanity towards union with God, because his desire is to be

in union with humans. However, it is desire itself that can lead people away from God,

degenerating their relationships into violence and murder. Thus, violence and non-

violence are themes which strongly emerge through such a reading. Jesus’ crucifixion

and God’s will for Jesus at Gethsemane are explored in depth. Since Alison’s theological

perspective and Girard’s anthropology are the dominant elements within this study, some

biblical texts remain somewhat problematic in this chapter. For instance, the reading of

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the true and living God revealed in Scripture as completely and entirely non-violent.

These texts are highlighted and presented as problematic texts. Such difficulties are re-

discussed in Chapter Four.

John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night are explored in Chapter

Three. Once again, elements identified in Alison’s theology are kept in mind whilst

studying and presenting John of the Cross’ theology. In this Chapter I also explore John

of the Cross’ notions of attachments to false images of God and the dark process that is

required to shed these attachments. For John of the Cross anything that comes in the way

of our relationship with the living God is problematic and a form of idolatry17.

In Chapter Four I attempt to bring Alison’s theology in dialogue with the selected biblical

texts and the theology of John of the Cross’. Elements identified in all texts are brought

together, highlighting where they resonate in harmony with each other and where they

provoke one another. All texts reveal God to be love and love to be his demand for all

humanity, expressed in our own relationships with God himself and one another. Justice

and its understanding is an element that may cause disharmony between the various texts

but as I propose in Chapter Four, John of the Cross’ notion of purification may resolve

such difficulties.

0.6 Limitations

During this study I made use of the word he to refer to God. However, I did not use this

language to limit my understanding of God as only male or to discriminate on the basis of

gender. I recognize that God is beyond our understanding of gender differences and

separations. I only made use of such word for practical reasons and to keep the same

word throughout this study.

17 IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 39-45.

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Another limitation of this study is my prior familiarity with René Girard’s anthropology

and James Alison’s theology. Whilst reading the biblical texts and John of the Cross’

theology I could not avoid the bias of reading these texts through the eyes of Alison’s

theological notions and understanding. I believe that this bias particularly emerges in

Chapter Two.

Another limitation of this study is that the subject is very vast. Authors and texts chosen

for the purpose of this study are already demanding on their own; anything said about

such texts is never enough. As previously discussed the understanding of idolatry and

human sacrifice was particularly selected especially for Chapter Two, to keep the study

focused on one basic question. Looking at idolatry within Scripture is an incredible feat

which this study could not sustain. The theme is vastly explored by Scripture and would

need an intricate and detailed study on its own. Focusing on human sacrifice helped to

keep the study focused and remain within the framework of this work.

0.7 Definition of Terms

True Image: Whilst this study claims to uncover idolatry, it searches for a true image of

God. The imageless ‘image’ of God emerges as the true and dominant ‘image’ within

this study. However, Jesus Christ and all of his life is found to be the true icon given to

us as a true image of this imageless God.

Icon: Throughout this study I grew more uncomfortable with using the word image and

found the word icon to be more suitable to use. The notion of the imageless God

emerged powerfully and therefore I become more uncomfortable with all images. And

yet, God does not leave the human person into oblivion, he gives stories to humans,

stories which he himself inhabits, thus revealing who he is and who the human person is.

I found the use of the word icon more appropriate to describe these story-‘images’ of God

which God himself gives us, of himself.

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Idolatry: In this study reference to idolatry particularly refers to those situations of

worship or ‘relationship’ with God which leads one person killing, harming, or excluding

another person, believing that she or he is pleasing God by doing so.

Human Sacrifice: As mentioned above, for the purpose of this study idolatry

particularly refers to human sacrifice. However, I am using the word human sacrifice in

its widest sense. It refers to one person killing another, but it also refers to one person

excluding, rejecting, oppressing or marginalizing another human being. The use of the

word murder in this study also has this wide interpretation. At times it is also God

himself who is excluded. This fact is dramatically revealed in Jesus’ paschal mystery.

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Chapter 1: Idolatry and the True Image of God as found in James Alison’s Theology

"...the gratuitous self-giving of God into the hands of human (the Johannine 'handing

over') as far as to become a human victim, so that humans can learn to cease killing

each other and come to be participants in the imitation of God, is the true perspective

on creation, revealed by the intelligence of the victim.”18

1.1 Introduction

In this Chapter I will be focusing on Alison’s theology. Of course one needs to study

Girard’s anthropology for a better grasp of Alison’s theological stance. Therefore, I will

be making references to Girard’s main anthropological claims as well. I chose Alison

because as a theologian he intrigues me on many levels.

For instance Alison in his book The Joy of Being Wrong, quotes J. Milbank to emphasize

the point also argued by Girard19 that the total separation of modern social theory from

theology is illusory20. Alison and Girard discuss Catholic theology also as revealed

social theory: ‘It is completely coherent perspective on human social life, but one from a

divine starting point’21.

What is of more interest to me is Girard’s and Alison’s claim that Christianity itself is the

factor that led towards the collapse of belief in the real guilt of mythical victims, opening

up possibilities for scientific theories and secularization itself22. For Alison the only real

concept of freedom is theological. It is made possible by the irruption of a unique and

18 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 99. 19 RENÉ GIRARD, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1989, 125-148. 20 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 22. 21 Ibid, 23. 22 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 73-91.

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different sort of Other, who is Jesus the Son of God, who is massively prior to us, who

sets us free of our worldly structures and religions which bring about a certain peace and

freedom yet cover-up one essential factor, the murder which is the price to be paid for to

bring about that kind of order23.

1.2 Desire

For Alison and Girard desire is a primal energy. Both of them assert that it is essentially

a good force yet it is also problematic and needs restructuring24. Alison quotes Thomas

of Aquinas emphasising that this perspective on desire is tradition within Catholic

teaching. Alison clarifies that desire is anterior to language (reason), will (freedom) and

memory (history). It is a very powerful force25. However, even though desire is

essentially good, it is seriously corrupt26.

Girard highlights that desire is triangular and leads us towards conflicts and expulsions.

The way desire functions, according to him, is universal and humans tend to be blind to

this process. They are blind to the cruel fact that societies and cultures create scapegoats

to resolve violent and rival unconscious desires. They are also blind to the truth that the

victim is hated without cause and real peace cannot be based on sacrifice or murder

through unifying expulsion. Girard claims that we are all implicated in this kind of

scapegoat-violence and at the root of such violence is envious desire27.

23 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1993, 33-87. 24 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 109-124. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 12-15. RENÉ GIRARD, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, translated, with a forward, by James G. Williams, New York 2001, 1-18. RENÉ GIRARD, Battling to the End. Conversations with Benoit Chantre, translated by Mary Baker, Michigan 2010, 30-31. 25 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 2, 40. 26 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 18-33. 27 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, London 2003, 283-325. RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, London 2005, 1-71.

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Our desire functions through attraction and repulsion, through imitation and rivalry. We

look for models but these turn into rivals and conflict arises. According to Girard it is

Mimesis which causes this attraction and separation, which forms individuality and

identity, cohesion and autonomy. Yet, rivalry is present and resolved at all levels through

the expulsion of a victim28.

Alison argues that desire is especially present in the modern world because of the ‘post-

modern’ collapse of social prohibitions. These prohibitions ‘protected us’ from each

other’s violence, even though through violent-sacred means, but now these are no longer

effective. However, this could also be problematic if we do not return to the Gospel

truth29.

Thus, humans need to be reached by a new pattern of desire because our corrupted, rival

and violent desire needs to be curved upwards by the Creator. Envy governs much of

human relationships but all this can be transformed into fruition and joy starting from the

here and now30. If not, violence can become widespread since old prohibitions no longer

hold - desire still needs direction31.

One factor that both Girard and Alison point out is that our pattern of desire is based on a

lie which deeply corrupts our relations with others. For both, it is Jesus who uncovers

this lie and makes available a new pattern of desire which is without ambivalence,

conflict or danger, transforming our gaze32.

28 RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, London 2005, 1-71. 29 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 125-139. RENÉ GIRARD, Battling to the End. Conversations with Benoit Chantre, translated by Mary Baker, Michigan 2010, 195-217. 30 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 92-108. 31 Ibid, 125-139. 32 Ibid, 109-124.

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This lie covers violent desires and turns them into ‘sacred’. Girard argues that archaic

religions and mythological stories are very good at this cover-up. Alison, whilst

discussing original sin, stresses that we start life from this disordered pattern of desire,

but the good news is that it can be re-learnt to become desire according to the desire of

God33.

Repentance and forgiveness become for Alison two key notions for this process of

transformation of desire. Alison tells us that we need to be brought into God’s self-

interpretative desire, which is himself. Therefore we learn to find elements in our desire

that are indeed of the Creator and stripped off of all sorts of idolatry. This is a process

which is both painful and disorientating34.

1.3 Mimesis

One key notion and major contribution from René Girard is that of Mimesis. This is also

central in Alison’s theology. Mimesis is the theory presented by René Girard in his

various writings which offers a particular understanding of human relationships and

human culture. Mimetic theory tells us about what moves human beings in their

relationships. It also tells us how culture and mythology hide a violent-sacred

understanding of ‘god’ with its scapegoat mechanisms to resolve violence35.

Mimetic theory also uncovers the dependence of human beings upon each other. It

emphasizes realities both historical and personal that precede us in life and how they

affect us, these being ‘keys’ to understand how our desire functions. Through Mimetic

33 RENÉ GIRARD, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1989, 1-56. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 168-175. 34 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 265-279. 35 MICHAEL KIRWAN, Discovering Girard, London 2004, 14-37. What is Mimetic Theory, (on-line) : http://www.ravenfoundation.org/about-us/what-is-mimetic-theory [16 November 2010].

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theory we perceive the function of desire as primarily imitating the desire and intent of

someone else, usually someone whom we perceive as our model. Through this we end

up desiring that same ‘object’ that our model gives value to. This can end up in conflict,

rivalry and violence. Mimetic theory shows us that no one is entirely without some sense

of struggle, some tendency towards violent acquisition, even of self. Peace, according to

Girard can be a very violent kind of reality, based on deceit and covered up violence.

This kind of peace in fact does not last long and tends to break again into conflict because

humans are violent creatures36.

From an anthropological point of view, society learnt to deal with this conflict, violence

and rivalry through a lynch-death murder story. Along the years through various

mythologies, rituals and religious beliefs these stories were told, repeated and written

from the perspective of the persecutor, hiding the core truth. Girard tells us that the

Gospel is a unique text in this sense: it reveals this dynamic for what it is, a murder and a

sordid crime. The Bible shows us that God the Father does not justify it and he is always

on the side of the victim, for instance in the Cain and Abel story. On the other hand

many other stories present these victim stories as necessary, sacred and ‘god’s-will’.

Mimetic rivalry resolved in this manner is thus the distortion of desire and not God’s

created, given desires37.

For Girard and Alison the Scriptures expose this mechanism based on a lie. Thus, being

a Christian becomes deeply intermingled with being non-accusatory, non-exclusive of

others, re-reading stories from an entirely different starting point. For Alison,

Christianity propels humans towards re-creating societies without needing to have

scapegoats or enemies as their foundation, overcoming the trap of being run by death and

murderous desires. This perspective offers us fresh understandings into Jesus’ own

teaching about the Father’s many mansions. His commandment is to create visible, 36 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 7-21. 37 JAMES ALISON (1999), Being Saved and Being Wrong in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng18.html [14 November 2010]. JAMES ALISON (1996), Girard’s Breaktrough in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng05.html [14 November 2010]. RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, London 2003, 283-325.

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imitable human history which is not run by the rule of death but empowered by an

imagination in imitation of Jesus38. For Girard and Alison it is important to read texts

with this mimetic understanding of desire. Jesus becomes for us a living fulcrum and

criterion for judgment. Only Jesus is the real hermeneutical principle as he reveals to us

a very inconvenient truth39.

1.4 The Victim

Girard points out that victims across cultures and as found in mythological stories are

believed to be truly guilty yet at the same time they enjoy a divine quality for the

restoration of peace their killing brings about. For Girard, this logic is the basic

understanding of the violent-sacred which is a two-faced divinity, both disturbing and

pacifying40. For René Girard this means an understanding of God, which according to

him is also wrongly found within Christianity, that on the one hand God is benevolent but

on the other hand he might request blood even human sacrifice. For Girard, the Judeo-

Christian text offers a world view with a single benevolent God. Girard supports his

claims through various Biblical stories amongst them that of Cain and Abel, explaining

how Scripture reveals the killing of Abel as merely a sordid murder highlighting that God

is not an accomplice in the killing, a different perspective to other foundational fratricide

mythological stories41.

Girard explains that the victim is arbitrarily chosen by the group or lynch-mob. What is

really going on is that the victim is innocent of his or her attributed guilt. The mob

simply unburdens its violence, rivalry and conflict upon that victim. Peace is simply a

moment of unburdened violence but that same violence is in actual fact not resolved, thus

bound to return. Hence victims are always needed in such societies. The Gospel

38 JAMES ALISON (2005), Show us the Father in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng34.html [16 November 2010]. 39 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 230-248. 40 RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, London 2005, 1-40. 41 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 73-91.


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uncovers this kind of logic for what it is. The Gospel tells us that this mechanism is

murder and God is on the side of victims. Thus Christianity for Girard is the reverse of

all other myths and it undoes the old lie from within42.

1.5 Scapegoat Mechanism

In Jesus’ life, ministry, passion and resurrection both Girard and Alison see that he is

undoing scapegoat mechanisms and dynamics which can also turn into self-destruction.

These dynamics keep ‘order’ and help others in society keep their ‘good’ identities as

compared to the ‘bad’ identity of scapegoat-others. For Girard and Alison both ‘good’

and ‘bad’ identities are false and lead to a destructive dependency of one against the

other. Therefore, the passion of Jesus Christ renders the scapegoat mechanism as source

for human togetherness forever suspect. To work well this system needs a mob blind to

the innocence of the victim. The persecutors need not doubt the righteousness of their

own fury. The Gospel disrupts this dynamic forever43.

1.6 The Principle of Reciprocity

The principle of reciprocity is another key notion in Girard’s anthropology and Alison’s

theology. For both once again this principle is much present in Scriptures. It works in

the following manner: as humans we reciprocate gestures or gifts. For example, one

friend invites another friend to a meal and that kind gesture is reciprocated. Jesus often

makes reference to this dynamic in his parables, disrupting it. In light of Jesus’ teaching

this dynamic is suspect because it can easily degenerate into a violent one. To function

42 PAUL J. NUECHTERLEIN (2002), René Girard: The Anthropology of the Cross as Alternative to Post-Modern Literary Criticism in Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary: Understanding the Bible Anew Through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard (on-line) : http://girardianlectionary.net/girard_postmodern_literary_criticism.htm [6 November 2010]. 43 RENÉ GIRARD, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1989, 125-148. KATIE SHERROD (2006), James Alison: Scapegoats, Class Fairies, and God in Claiming the Blessing (on-line) : http://www.claimingtheblessing.org/Publications/James_Alison_Article.pdf [6 November 2010].

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within this dynamic is to remain stuck at the level of reactivity towards each other. Thus,

Jesus calls us to move away from it and transform reciprocal violent relationships into

free ones by not being moved by violence. He is able to show us the way into this

because he gives us himself prior and anterior to our violence towards him, hence Jesus is

referred to as Other in Alison’s theology. With and in Jesus we enter into a process of

non-rival imitation free from any reciprocal violent actions, free to love the other

gratuitously in imitation of Jesus who imitates the Father who is perfect44.

Being Christian is about being pulled into learning new ways of relating to God, others

and self. Christianity uncovers for us our own refusal of life, therefore the real ‘getting it

right’ is done by someone else. We are simply those undergoing ‘something else’ and

not protagonists of the story45.

Alison argues that both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ are in need to be humanized, freed from

any bondage of desire, one way or another. For Jesus everything is in the light of day. He

is beyond social constructs of goodness and badness and leads us to relate to him and

others beyond these social constructs as well46.

In light of Gospel teaching, insisting on being right is dangerous because it confirms our

being bound in original murderous complicity and sin. For Alison, being wrong is in fact

good news because it can be forgiven. Sin displaces responsibility and evil leads us into

44 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 104-105, 144. RENÉ GIRARD, Battling to the End. Conversations with Benoit Chantre, translated by Mary Baker, Michigan 2010, 1-86. In an article entitled ‘Bin Laden warns French of killings in ‘revenge’ attacks’ in The Times of Malta of Thursday 28 October 2010 one can notice what René Girard talks about and ‘fears’. Violent reciprocity that can degenerate even at a global level in our own age. Bin Laden’s words are referring to this violent reciprocity in this message he sent to the French and reported globally. Bin Laden warns French of killings in ‘revenge’ attacks in The Times of Malta Thursday, 28th October 2010 (on-line) : http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101028/world-news/bin-laden-warns-french-of-killings-in-revenge-attacks [28 October 2010]. 45 JAMES ALISON (2005), Deliver us from evil in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng04.html [15 November 2010]. James Alison (2006) , Is it ethical to be Catholic? – Queer perspectives in in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng27.html [15 November 2010]. 46 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 119-125.

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the corruption of our desire. It keeps us blind to scapegoat mechanisms and the dangers

of reciprocity. For God violence is an abomination which disrupts humanity’s freedom.

Forgiveness is one way out of this trap. I will elaborate about forgiveness further on47.

1.7 Violence and Idolatry

Alison’s theology tells us that whereas in pagan cultures humans offered sacrifices to the

divinity, in Scripture YHWH reveals himself as offering sacrifice to humans, again a

reversal of another human mechanism, in this case idol rituals. Another revelation is that

it is humans who need blood in order to keep murderous systems in place, for peace

keeping and order - to keep society’s violence in check. However, Jesus breaks this

deathly human culture and opens up new possibilities full of life. Scripture teaches that

God is entirely beyond death. He touches our murderous desires and cultures with love,

to help us out of these systems. Of course, Jesus knew about our violent condition and he

deliberately went to his death, but as someone entirely free, to detoxify the reality of

death, revealing it to be without power, and that is good news48.

The Father is horrified at the cruelty unleashed on Jesus yet remains present as a source

of loving self-giving to bring into existence fresh possibilities for us to become able to

overcome death and its dominion49.

Alison elaborates on how the law itself can justify and cover up violence. It can create

ambivalence. Moreover righteous people can hide their violence and fool themselves

about it because they are law abiding. In actual fact, they are merely violent people good

at manipulating laws and traditions and this the Gospel reveals50.

47 Ibid, 147-156. 48 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 44-48. JAMES ALISON, Undergoing God. Dispatches from the scene of a break-in, London 2006, 33-67. 49 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 140-159. 50 Ibid, 92-108.

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Not only do we manipulate the law but as humans we are often and mistakenly enclosed

in identifying the Father with an ambiguous god, good on the one hand but somewhat

violent on the other. This god is mixed with the satanic figure that justifies human

violence, murder and expulsion for peace and order. The idea of the Father as good and

providential whilst at the same time demanding human-sacrifice and blood is a common

understanding for Christians and a dangerous double-bind. For both Girard and Alison,

this kind of thinking does not serve God and they warn us about this false notion51.

Through his anthropology Girard exposes one of the greatest fears of society, that of

uncontrollable violence. The violent-world-sacred order emerges from this fear, a culture

which disguises violence whilst at the same time allowing it to unleash its repressed

murderous desires onto a scapegoat for the sake of peace and order. Jesus offers us the

possibility for the non-violent sacred, subverting from within systems of goodness which

are as dangerous as the ‘bad’ ones. Jesus relocates the sacred, collapsing group frontiers

and setting both victims and persecutors free. He brings forgiveness to Cain who can

stop wondering after encountering Jesus. Cain can be like the Son of man who has no

place because the new Jerusalem is given, it comes down from heaven52. He can stop

building violent foundations for civilization.

Alison highlights that the real choice is not between theism and atheism but rather

between the true God and idolatry. Since all desire originates in the Father, all love

originates in this imageless God whose only particular image given to us is that of the

human victim. Therefore, the real life-giving God becomes a threat to our stability and

security of our identities: personal, cultural, societal and global. For Alison, the Church

is the coming into being of this new way of forming unity between us humans, a unity

around the ‘Other’, God as the self-giving victim. It is always a new and fresh

possibility, a new way of relating with much implications: that of uncovering forgivingly

our complicity in victimizing others. In believing we cease to see ourselves as victims

and changed into penitent persecutors.

51 Ibid, 140-159. 52 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 96-97; 119-125; 139-146; 248-250.

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‘It does mean that humans who think they are in some way pleasing God by

putting such people to death are mired in idolatry, and can never learn

anything about themselves or other people while this is their solution to their

group problems.’53

Alison argues strongly on the point that we are objects in God’s ken and he is massively

prior to us. In this light it is God who gives us his own criterion for what it looks like to

be non-idolatrous. Alison states that ‘we are all very markedly idolatrous, and that our

idolatry is principally linked to the way in which death and its fear clouds our

imaginations, our minds, our judgments and our passions. It really does mean that there

is no simple way to read off from the powers and glories of this world to the power and

glory to God. Rather the reverse’.54 The criterion is that of the forgiving human victim.

Therefore, to be non-idolatrous is to refrain from creating victim created circles.

Alison’s theology shows us how Christianity enables us to become aware of our own

idolatry and thus how to become free to relate with others without idols. All this can

happen through the slaughtered victim kept alive, for us to see and receive him to be

forgiven. Jesus does not hold on to any sense of victimhood and so he is the King of an

entirely different story55.

For Girard, Jesus’ sacrifice undid the whole world of sacrifices, taking away all group

barriers. Both Girard and Alison strongly argue that Jesus’ death did not happen to

please the Father but to reach out to us. Therefore, the passion of Jesus becomes for us

the primordial Christian experience: to undergo a form of dying-in-advance so that we

are no longer driven by death in our living. In this context Jesus speaks of being in this

world but not for it. He teaches us about a way of life where we are not afraid to lose. A

life where it is better to be ‘sacrificed’ than collude in violence56.

53 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 272. 54 Ibid, 270-271. 55 Ibid, 109-124. 56 Ibid, 231-264.

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Alison states that what lies behind the Eucharistic dynamic is the invitation out of

idolatry and into being. Jesus Christ anticipated our anger, hatred and violence but this

little upset him and he moved on with his plan of salvation for us. He brought us through

it all and called us, calling us even now, into being57.

1.8 Revelation

The resurrection is for Alison, like other theologians the fullness of Jesus’ revelation. For

him this revelation makes available for us the intelligence of the victim which is a certain

perspective on how society and our desire function. Revelation is for Alison a form of

subversion from within of human violence. Jesus also sets us free from a violent

understanding of God. The Resurrection is the climax of insight and telling humanity it

is wrong about its violent understanding of God; violence is only part of the human

condition58. Mimetic theory and Alison’s theology uncover one basic dynamic, that it is

not God who expels human beings from paradise but rather the reverse, it is humans who

expel God. Thus the Adam and Eve story is re-read as the expulsion of God from Eden,

destroying paradise rather than God expelling them out of Eden59.

Alison tells us that at the core of the theology of original sin is the learning that we can

either receive gratuitously or acquire violently through appropriation - building identities

over and against others. Sin is about violent mechanism within us that lead to the

expulsion of others rather than allowing others to become beneficent influences upon us.

Through such mechanism we remain bound in violence, our memory is distorted, and we

misread stories of victimization, even the gospel itself60.

57 Ibid, 209-279. 58 JAMES ALISON, Undergoing God. Dispatches from the scene of a beak-in, London 2006, 33-49. JAMES ALISON (1999), Being Saved and Being Wrong in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng18.html [12 November 2010]. 59 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 94-102. 60 Ibid, 102-111.


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Therefore Jesus’ revelation lays the choice in front of us clearly and squarely. Either we

continue with our condemnations and casting out, bringing judgment on ourselves

through the choice of the old murderous lie or accept light, committing ourselves to

cultivating in the here and now Christian hope. Alison points out that Christian hope

always begins in terror and utter disorientation because it starts from the collapse of all

that is familiar and well known61. However I will elaborate further on this point in the

section about transformation.

Thus revelation contained within the Catholic faith is not a rival sacrificial system

amongst others but an undoing from within of all sacred-violence found in all cultures.

Revelation shows us that systems of goodness are terribly dangerous things and the only

sort of goodness is to become a penitent62.

The Christian faith becomes a path where we cultivate a way of life that should not be

involved in any worldly power and violence. Of course, taking such a step in a violent

world makes us immensely vulnerable and because of this we can be turned into victims

ourselves63.

Therefore, at the core of revelation we find that all human societies and not only pagan

societies are based on deicide, the killing of God. For a society to be based on sacrifice -

killing and casting out, is to be based on the exclusion of God. The great deceit lies in

JAMES ALISON (2010), From Impossibility to Responsibility: Developing New Narratives for Gay Catholic Living in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng63.html [12 November 2010]. JAMES ALISON (2002), Beyond Theory: A Salvific Unpicking of Atonement’s Knots in Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary: Understanding the Bible Anew Through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard (on-line) : http://girardianlectionary.net/theology/alison_atonement.htm [13 October 2010]. 61 JAMES ALISON (2009), Navigating in Unchartered Waters: The Gift of Faith and Growing Up LGBT in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng61.html [20 October 2010]. JAMES ALISON (2002), Ecclesiology and Indifference: Challenges for Gay and Lesbian Ministry in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng44.html [20 October 2010]. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 98-116; 154-158 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 211-236. 62 Ibid, 70-111. 63 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 73-91. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 98-137.


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the fact that humans too often believe that this violent way is the right way to serve

God64.

Jesus experienced this in his own flesh, not only did he live among violent human beings,

but amongst people who had persecutory projections about God. It is in this context that

he reveals the depth of his love, uncovering our sin-mechanisms of murderous

expulsions. Humans are always blind to this justification of our violent behaviour,

believing it as good and coming from God. Interestingly guilt always remains65.

1.9 Jesus

“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from

the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the

devil” (1 John 3, 8).

In Alison’s theology Jesus is obviously central. Alison describes Jesus as Just Is, the Son

of God who was in no need of conversion because he is purely given, revelation66. Jesus

is God’s visitation of his people and this visitation brings about life, health and

forgiveness. He is actively kind to the ungrateful and selfish67. It is within this context

that Alison explains how Jesus exposes our violent natures and structures of desire. He

shows us that up to that point (and unfortunately even later) humans resolved (and still

do) violence through victim-processes and scapegoat mechanisms. Alison describes the

64 Ibid, 98-197. 65 JAMES ALISON, Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay, New York 2001, 27-85. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 102-111. 66 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 1-32. 67 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 92-108; 186-279. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 102-111.

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passion and resurrection of Jesus as bringing about a rapture to help us overcome our

violent patterns of relating68.

Alison highly stresses the point that Jesus gives himself gratuitously, that in him there is

no appropriation. Therefore, salvation is also a critical counter history and story. For

Alison salvation is a historical undoing of the satanic dynamic all humanity was and in so

many ways still is trapped into69.

Alison explains how Jesus aware of his death and fully knowledgeable that his way of

life would lead to his murder, chooses to remain faithful to his own sermon, his Father’s

will: to choose a life not formed within the violent and powerful structures of this world

but in solidarity with those of no account, even if this leads to victimization. Thus the

Christian path is a way of learning to live gratuitously and not be run by violence in

relation to others, even with those who victimize us70.

However, Alison along with René Girard do point out that Christians have not quite fully

understood this point: ‘What Jesus did has for too long been described in emotionally

blackmailing terms, pushing people into contorted forms of asceticism and fake

goodness.’71

For Alison and Girard the implicated understanding that God the Father needs the

‘sacrifice’ of Jesus and that he was in need of somebody’s blood in reparation of

humanity’s sin is problematic. Girard and Alison expose an ambivalent understanding of

God by Christians of this Father who is good, and yet somehow maneuvers the story of

Jesus behind the scenes to lead to his death-sacrifice72. Alison’s theology liberates us

from this contorted understanding of God the Father.

68 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 1-31. 69 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 73-91. 70 Ibid, 160-175. 71 Ibid, 228. 72 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998. The Girard Reader, edited by J. G. Williams, New York 1996.

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Thus Jesus becomes for us the second Adam and in Jesus we find the fullness of

revelation, the image of YHWH fully revealed in Jesus here on earth and not corrupted as

in the image of God given by Adam and his offspring. Jesus occupies the space of death,

of all victims both past and future, up to Abel. He reveals and occupies the full cultural

human reality of death, murder, shame, violence, mob-rule and of a violent understanding

of God. He is not run by any of these dynamics and in him we can become the temple,

forming a new unity. Around him we form a new path to holiness which has nothing to

do with the violent-sacred structures of old. Jesus brings into being as-yet-unimagined

good. Jesus restores our lost fraternity and gives us back relations the way they always

were meant to be73.

To achieve this fraternity he sets us free from any tribal sense of belonging because true

belonging is purely given; in him there is only a ‘we’. Therefore, the good news is that

Jesus is the self-giving of God into the hands of murderous men rather than the giving by

murderous men of something or someone to God. The murder-sacrifice dynamic has

been definitively revealed74.

For Alison, knowing Jesus is key to knowing the Father. It is from knowing Jesus as a

victim that a new humanity can emerge. Thus, Jesus reveals his Father by his obedient

imitation even to the point of death, to liberate us from all our fantasies about God who is

somewhat violent or murderous. For Alison, from this understanding the Holy Spirit is

outpoured to us as the intelligence of the victim75.

Alison explains how Jesus in his passion fully drinks the cup of wrath containing all

systems of prohibitions, rituals, sacrifices and myths – the ways societies and religions

keep violence in check. Therefore, the slain lamb through his death and resurrection

73 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 249-279. 74 Ibid, 34-53. JAMES ALISON (1999), Being Saved and Being Wrong in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng18.html [14 November 2010]. 75 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 33-58. JAMES ALISON (2005), Show us the Father in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng34.html [14 October 2010].



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‘pulled the plug’ on this whole sacred-violent system. Jesus becomes a place where we

can be nourished and find wholeness and life. He becomes for us a story to live by and

the place of springs. From ‘now’ on we cannot divinize anger any longer76.

Thus, Jesus fulfills a creation where we are projections of God - he who is not part of

anything that is. In fact Alison describes God more like nothing at all than like anything

that is because only by God not being like anything that is, that everything that is can be

a function of God, Alison argues. Therefore accepting him is accepting life, an

understanding that there is a point to everything, that it is good and it will end in

rejoicing. But by rejecting him we remain stuck in vanity and violent-sacred desires,

ways of relating and structures77.

In Jesus we become someone who is loved, honestly and openly able to perform creative

works of love for others. Jesus has no need to run away from the world of sinners

because he is not threatened by the world. He is at peace with human desire. People for

him are capable of being transformed if touched by his love and he leads us into

responsible brotherhood, unbinding us from each others’ desire which is intrinsically

disordered78.

76 JAMES ALISON (2010), From Impossibility to Responsibility: Developing New Narratives for Gay Catholic Living in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng63.html [12 November 2010]. JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 34-53. 77 Ibid, 34-53, 265-279. 78 JAMES ALISON, On Being Liked, London 2003, 100-146.


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1.10 Sermon on the Mount

The sermon on the Mount has a prominent place in Alison’s theology. Alison

understands this sermon as Jesus primarily making an anthropology of desire available

rather then teaching morals. Through this sermon he uncovers who we are and the way

we are constituted, teaching us how to refrain from patterns of desire run by what the

other is doing. Only in this way can we be free to receive our identity by the Father who

is able to hold us and love us into being. If we apply this teaching we find out that we

have more similarities with our enemies, rather than our perceived or imagined

exaggerated differences. Thus our hostile reciprocity can be transformed into a friendly

one. Through living this sermon we learn how to be for the other but in way that does not

define us over against him or her. Interestingly Alison points out that this process is also

experienced as a form of death because we ‘lose’ our sense of identity for the possibility

to receive another one79.

Alison stresses that the Bible is not primarily teaching us about feelings but rather about

patterns of relating with an emphasis on particular relations to the poor, the naked, the

imprisoned and the sick. It is with these that Jesus identifies and it is these relations that

uncover who we really are. In fact Scripture teaches us that one small work of charity is

more valuable than the highest degree any spiritual experience of God one may have

which does not lead that person to become more loving and inclusive of others rather

making him or her more violent towards others by excluding them for being ‘less holy’80.

The Sermon of the Mount is the centre of Jesus’ ethics for Alison’s theology. In this

sermon Alison finds Jesus teaching about human society, that it is a violent place which

resolves its own violence through victims. Interestingly, revelation is found in the midst

of that violence but always on the side of victims. The Sermon of the Mount tells us that

79 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 139-146. JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 160-175. 80 Ibid, 92-175.

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humans are utterly constituted in violence, anger, lust and quarrel but Jesus points out the

way outside of this violent cycle81.

1.11 Jesus’ Resurrection

For James Alison’s theology the Resurrection is in actual fact the starting point and of

course central. The resurrection becomes for Alison God’s interpretation of the life of

Jesus, as the one who was hated without cause. Therefore it is the Risen Lord who re-

reads and re-interprets all of Scripture82.

The resurrection of Jesus opened up possibilities for the Apostles to re-think their own

lives, relationships, homeland, culture and values. It altered their understanding of who

God is. The resurrection of Jesus should do the same to us. By raising Jesus from the

dead God confirmed his life and death, affirming his freedom and truth. A post-

resurrection understanding of God the Father is therefore defined as he who raised Jesus

from the dead - a radical insight into who God is. The resurrection teaches us that we

need not flee our human existence but need to learn about love - how the life of Jesus

Christ transforms all83.

The resurrection is the climax of revelation, a revelation about God who is entirely

without violence and who wants to liberate us from any distorted understanding of him

such as being complicit in violent activity. Girard and Alison explain how human

violence is often unrecognized thus transferred and projected onto God. The resurrection

corrects once and for all this distortion. The intelligence of the victim reveals this reality

81 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 209-248. 82 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 3-31. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 25-28; 30-36; 51-54. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 70-94. 83 Ibid, 70-83. JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 92-108; 125-159; 209-229.

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about human-God relations demystifying God for us, correcting this human distorted

understanding of him84. Therefore, Pentecost becomes the un-telling and re-telling of the

story of Babel - from human-unity built against God to unity derived from serving and

worshipping the victim85.

Alison stresses the point that in the resurrection we find no vindication but only

eschatological pardon because God is outside human reciprocity. He has no desire for

control or dominion and his gratuitous giving of self is anterior to anything or anyone.

Therefore the Christian message after all is to cease killing each other and become

participants in the imitation of God86.

1.12 Forgiveness

Within Alison’s theology and Girard’s anthropology the command to forgive is key to set

us free from being locked in violent systems and structures of relating. Forgiveness helps

us re-learn through the imitation of the forgiving self-giving victim, to act gratuitously, to

do works of service, to be in solidarity with others and to acquire new desires. In

Christianity the whole person is formed by these new desires where there are no

stumbling blocks, no rivalry, we become more common but inclusive in our love for the

human race. We learn to acknowledge our dependence on each other and we become less

inclined to judge and to be divided87.

84 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 230-248. JAMES ALISON (2005), Girard’s Breaktrough in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng05.html [14 November 2010]. JAMES ALISON, Undergoing God. Dispatches from the scene of a beak-in, London 2006, 73-83. 85 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 249-264. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 162-221. 86 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 33-59. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 94-111. 87 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 26-27; 43-45; 94-113. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 65-68; 132; 177-178; 185-189.


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Jesus becomes for us the presence of the rejected victim who returns in the midst of his

own group showing them that they are forgiven and that he has nothing against them. In

accepting him back, his apostles and disciples find themselves free and empowered to

build new lives and societies. Alison argues that God’s uniqueness is not as we thought it

is, that of a well disguised human form of exclusion but a process of losing idols, of

learning to cease to grasp onto insecurities, a total re-structuring of the internal life, of

letting go of our anger and envy. Divine paternity is recast in a fraternal shape familiar to

us. The resurrected Jesus teaches us that wrath is wrongly attributed to God and it is

always purely human. In God there is no room for vengeance. Wrath in fact leads one

brother to kill another.

Since Alison sees the resurrection as the starting point he also sees that the forgiving

principle is present from the beginning of the world. For instance Alison states that we

need to re-read the initial murder of Abel from the murder story of Jesus. In this way we

can get to know about our complicity88.

1.13 Transformation

Transformation is not a word that one finds in Alison’s texts but I believe that his

theology, like that of John of the Cross and the Bible itself, is pointing towards this

notion. In Chapter four I shall be attempting to compare the two, along side Scripture,

particularly on this point. One of the main cornerstones in Alison’s theology is that as

humans we tend to be violent creatures. Not only are we violent towards others but we

can also turn that violence inwards; violence can be internalized. To explain this point

Alison uses the story of Jonah as a case in point. He explains how Jonah hid in the midst

of darkness, fear and suicidal depression. This was a place where he could find no

remedy, experienced disintegration and could see no light and yet found himself held by

a force which was not his own. Alison tells us that Scripture teaches that in the midst of JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 210, 235-236. 88 Ibid, 115-138.

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that darkness, without being fully aware of it, like Jonah we are held into being, stitched

together, reached and held at a depth which we are unable to imagine89. Of course this

echoes incredibly with the whole Carmelite tradition and spirituality and that of John of

the Cross, but more on this point in Chapter Four.

The space Jonah found himself in is a terribly fearful place. Jonah felt without being or

belonging. Scripture points out that we humans refuse to accept being created, to accept

God as creator and Lover of all humanity who brings people into a mutual rejoicing.

Alison emphasizes this point, that as humans we tend to have an aversion to creation

itself, resisting being completely re-created to become completely and joyfully dependent

on God. For Alison the Christian call is to have our minds fixed on the vivacious, living,

effervescent God who sets us free from the trap of an all-against-one kind of peace.90.

Violent and mimetic desire can be transformed into another sort of desire – a pacific

desire which is neither envious nor scandalized. Hence the good news: freedom coming

from the forgiving-revelation of what was hidden, our complicity in murder. Therefore

only the one who is open to be transformed and leave behind his or her violent complicity

can speak in the name of Christianity91.

The apostles themselves who lived with Jesus were not free from these violent

mechanisms or patterns of desire. They too had to undergo transformation of desire. It is

thanks to their transformation that we have Christianity today. Between the death of

Jesus and prior to his resurrection we see them feeling guilty of betrayal, mournful, afraid

of somehow having become semi-traitors and guilty of abandoning the one they followed

and loved. They are disillusioned and frightened: Easter Sunday starts from this very

place. Jesus even after his death remains totally gratuitous and opens up the possibility of

a new human history and story. God through the passion and resurrection of Jesus made 89 JAMES ALISON, Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay, New York 2001, 86-104. 90 Ibid. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 72-76; 149-158. JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 73-91. 91 IBID, 209-279. JAMES ALISON (2007), How do we talk about the Spirit in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/pdf/eng47.pdf [20 October 2010].

http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/pdf/eng47.pdf%20%5b20

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death an empty threat, revealing love beyond death and offering a fresh re-reading of all

human stories from a radical perspective previously hidden by death92.

God takes us from where we are, slowly and gently he completely undoes our mindset.

This contact can be a terrible place. It brings about a definitive alteration within us in

which we lose our sense of goodness, belonging, worth and reputation. Jesus is a

constant critical voice of the ‘we’ which is based in violence by excluding someone or a

‘we’ in relation to a perceived enemy. Jesus gives us a completely different mindset and

a new place for togetherness93.

Thus true worship is to find ourselves subverted from within. The true God needs no

worship because he has no ego that needs flattering and yet it is important for us to

worship him because only like this we open up a space for him to guide us out of our own

prisons, to reach us and to strip us of our bound imaginations. Alison describes prayer as

a form of detox, a space where we re-learn how to build up our desires in imitation of the

desire of someone who likes us. It brings about a reformed heart, transforms our desires

and helps us relate with each other. It is a therapy for our distorted desires. Transformed

we become the temples which takes place in inter-individual relationships between

people wherever they are94.

92 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 64-111. 93 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 92-108; 160-175. JAMES ALISON (2002), Ecclesiology and Indifference: Challenges for Gay and Lesbian Ministry in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng44.html [20 October 2010]. JAMES ALISON (2005), Girard’s Breaktrough in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng05.html [14 November 2010]. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 34-56. 94 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 17-175; 209-279.



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The Christian way is more about being de-constructed and re-constructed, a process of

undergoing the loss of idols to be able to hear a different kind of God, the one who is true

and living. Our perspective and perception of God itself is in need of purification. Only

through this purification can we become perfect as our Father is perfect95.

Alison points out how Christian talk sounds very beautiful but in reality it brings about

the collapse of our whole worldly world. Through this collapse something new does

come to birth. Truth undoes the sacred lie in which we are trapped but it is a painful

process for the person, group or society undergoing it. Yet only through this painful and

dark process we learn that we are held by someone who is much bigger than us, beyond

our grasping. We learn that Jesus plays the game of life on entirely different terms,

teaching us to live from within, in an utterly non-rival way. Through this darkness we are

set free, we taste the reality of being alive forever. Christianity brings us into a story

beyond our imagination96.

Jesus is the only Other able to move us entirely from within our freedom without

displacing us. He gratuitously calls us into being, to rejoice, to be made human, at home,

among friends. He transforms us into peaceful gratuitous human beings without any

rivalry for belonging. He takes us to that place where we can let go of approval and a

need to belong to this world. He helps us resolve ambivalence. Jesus-God gives us the

gift of story, which is not a reaction to something or someone else but a calling into being

to be rejoiced in. Jesus is the one who drags us into an unimagined narrative97.

95 Ibid, 209-279. 96 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 159-178. 97 JAMES ALISON, Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay, New York 2001, 56-85; 125-143, 209-235.

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1.14 Conclusion

Alison and Girard argue that only the religion which reveals the universal is capable of

being universal, a claim which made Girard unpopular in some academic circles. For

both it is Christianity that reveals the foundational original sin of the cosmos - distorted

desire. Christianity is a recovery of fraternity, an arduous creative struggle to unbury

Abel. In Jesus we recover the primordial peace of the Creator98.

Alison tells us that in Christianity we learn about creative forgiveness, about the Father’s

deathless nature and that only he can satisfy our real desires. Knowledge of each other

such as mimetic theory help us accept our similarities, that we are driven by similar

forces and we are all to some degree complicit in ‘murder’. Alison concludes that Jesus

gives us the new commandment, to see each other as alike in the light of a non-

appropriative mimesis. He also highlights that sin is always against fellow human

beings. He emphasizes that the law itself can be turned into an instrument of murder as

happened in the Jesus’ trial. Alison describes the true living God as the master of

suspicion99.

For Alison and myself, Girard is key in reading the Gospels. A reading of Scriptures

through the perspective of René Girard’s anthropology and Alison’s theology help us

understand how we humans can forge civilizations through grace, learning pacific

mimesis of the Father through obedience and thus finally correcting Adam’s

disobedience100.

98 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 237-265. RENÉ GIRARD, Battling to the End. Conversations with Benoit Chantre, translated by Mary Baker, Michigan 2010, 195-210. 99 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 9-63; 186-265. 100 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 230-248. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 15-21; 83-88; 130-138; 161-168; 222-229.

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Chapter 2: Is Human Sacrifice required by the True Living God? Biblical Perspectives

2.1 Introduction

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1, 8).

In this chapter I will look at what the Bible has to say on idolatry and the true image of

God particularly in relation to human sacrifice. I will be looking at the following texts:

Genesis 4, 1-16; 22, 1-18; 1 Kings 17; 18; 19, Matthew 5, 1-48; 12, 7; 21, 33-46; 26; 27;

28 giving special attention to Mt 27, 19. Finally, I will also explore Acts 7, 1-60; 10. In

my choice of Biblical texts I have attempted to select key texts that reflect ideas to be

explored in this study such as: the idea of sacrifice, murder, idolatry and God. Key

notions within Alison’s theology and Carmelite Spirituality were kept in mind whilst

keeping the reading of desire central. Moreover, whilst reading these texts I will try to

identify references to desire, violence and non-violence as related to the issue of idolatry.

Idolatry in this chapter particularly refers to that which leads one human being murdering

another. Perspectives from these texts will be brought in dialogue with Alison’s and John

of the Cross’ theology in Chapter Four. David Jensen says that he prefers the “narratives

of desire approach” to “the hermeneutics-of-suspicion approach”. He argues that

“narratives of desire” value “God’s desire for humankind and of humankind’s desire for

communion with God and for relationship with one another.”101 I found this perspective

helpful especially for this study. However, through this chapter I will also try to identify

those situations were desire takes us away from the living God.

101 DAVID JENSEN, The Embrace of Eros: Bodies, Desires, and Sexuality in Christianity, in BJORN KRONDORFER, Review of Margaret D. Kamitsuka (ed.), The Embrace of Eros: Bodies, Desires, and Sexuality in Christianity(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010) xi + 356pp., in Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality 5, 2 (2011) 119 (on-line) : http://www.jmmsweb.org/ [11 August 2011].

http://www.jmmsweb.org/

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2.2 The Character of God as found in the Old Testament

The Genesis stories present us with an active God whose actions are all related to

humans. The Genesis stories tell us something about how life was meant to be and

something about the reality of the lives of the Israelites as well - a hard life to grow crops,

a life where women suffered pain in childbirth and where snakes bit humans102.

Genesis presents us with a garden of abundant fruit, of no inhibitions and conflicts

spoiling male-female relationships and of no difficulties between humankind and the

animal kingdom. Eden was a delightful place, a beautiful paradise where God, the source

of life dwelt with humans, a place where order and harmony reigned. However, because

of disobedience, possibly idolatry103, Adam and Eve were expelled from this garden and

this idyllic state became beyond the grasp of human beings. The consequences are

serious. Outside of Eden woman’s role as wife is marred by tension and childbirth is

painful. Man’s work becomes hard work and frustrating and his life leads to death104.

Genesis retells familiar ancient Near Eastern stories about the origins of the world yet

dramatically transforms them theologically. They are stories with a serious purpose

which affirm monotheism and God’s almighty power. These stories place human beings

as central to the divine purpose and affirm that it is God who looks after humans

supplying them with food and not the other way round, as in the pagan myths. God

blesses humanity, encouraging all creation to be fertile105.

102 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch, vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 23. 103 Beale argues that Adam and Eve’s sin is primarily a sin of idolatry. That is, their hearts turned away from God, their reverence towards another ‘object’. Even though this is not explicitly found in the bible, it is obvious that they shifted their allegiance to Satan and thus became like him bringing disorder and chaos. They became liars and deceivers. A very strong theme in the Bible is that idol worshipers become like the idols they worship; spiritually insensitive and dead, whereas worshipers of the living God resemble him, a glorious reflection. See G. K. BEALE, We Become What We Worship. A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, United States of America, 2008 127-140. 104 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch, vol 1., Great Britain 2003 21-23. 105 Ibid, 16.

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In Genesis we find other lessons about the character of God. He remembers righteous

human beings; he is in control of the forces of nature: his word brings the world into

existence stage by stage; everything in creation including the sun and moon are his

creation and not gods. The human being is the climax of creation. In fact, humans are

the image of God - his representatives on earth. Genesis clearly sets in place a

comprehensible understanding about who God is and the meaning of his creation.

However, humans managed to spoil this beautiful picture and throughout the Bible we

find various dynamics and negative consequences resulting from this disobedience -

idolatry and violence being prominently among them. Scripture show us that violence

can be traced back to the first days of human history106.

Beale states that Adam and Eve were created to reflect God, his glory and “fill the earth

with it”107. Adam was created as the priest-king, commissioned to cultivate, guard the

garden and mirror divine glory. However, Adam and Eve failed allowing sin to enter the

garden. Rather than ruling over the serpent, they allowed it to rule over them. Beale

argues that though there is no direct reference to idol worship in Adam and Eve’s fall, the

implication is there. Idol worship refers to the reverence of anything other than God.

Adam and Eve’s allegiance shifted from God to Satan and thus became a reflection of

Satan’s image rather than that of God108.

In the Historical books YHWH is revealed as a personal God, the One who created men

and women to relate to him. Covenants are established and Israel is rescued from Egypt.

The laws reflect YHWH’s character. He reveals himself to be patient in unexpected

ways, responding to his people when they repent. He rescues Israel again and again,

holds back judgment, but also reveals himself as a ruler of all nations. In the Historical

books we do find ‘contests’ between YHWH and other gods. Of course his power is

revealed as superior and unique. However, at times he seems to stand back and let events

106 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch, vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 27-32. STUART WEEKS, Man-made Gods? Idolatry in the Old Testament, in Idolatry. False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity, planned and edited by STEPHEN C. BARTON, London 2007, 7-21. 107 G. K. BEALE, We Become What We Worship. A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, United States of America, 2008, 128. 108 Ibid, 128-135.

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take their course109. Satterthwaite and McConville argue that “In short, the Histories

claim that to turn away from YHWH is to reject what is good and right for what is

twisted, cruel, wicked, oppressive and dehumanizing.”110

In the Historical books we find other themes such as that of political shrewdness, that

Israel is to be known as the nation which worships YHWH in his temple, that Israel often

needs to seek YHWH’s forgiveness and that he forgives covenant violations if people

repent. We also find running a tension between judgment and grace through the books of

Kings. Another lesson is that inordinate love can lead us to worship false gods and that

kings have a tendency to adopt forms of worship that suit their own interests. Again

pointing out that the worship of gods is in fact a problem of the heart’s wanderings and

its various desires111.

2.3 Problematic Texts with regards to God’s character in the Pentateuch & Historical Books

Some biblical texts about the character of God are in fact problematic if read from René

Girard’s and Alison’s perspective. René Girard argues that violence in the Bible

particularly in the Old Testament is human projection. Based on this understanding,

James Alison claims that we need to understand God through the fullness of his

revelation, through Jesus Christ’s resurrection. The ‘violent’ God we encounter in the

Old Testament is a God who is not yet fully understood by the human person of that time,

culture and context112. However, some texts are problematic for such a claim. In this

section I will look at some of these texts.

109 PHILIP SATTERTHWAITE – GORDON MCCONVILLE , Exploring the Old Testament. The Histories, Vol 2., Great Britain 2007, 21; 150-155; 161-163; 175. 110 Ibid, 21. 111 Ibid, 150-155; 161-163; 175. 112 RENÉ GIRARD, The Girard Reader, edited by James G. Williams, New York 1996, 145-221. JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 3-30.

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2.3.1 Genesis

In the Abraham story we find that he is asked to leave his comfortable homeland and he

responds in faith. Scripture shows us that this is a giant leap forward for humankind.

Words spoken to Abraham are the first words since the flood and they sum up the theme

of Genesis. In them we find four promises: a land, numerous descendants, protection and

success (blessing). These promises do come about yet Scripture also teaches us that these

may not have been fulfilled as expected. Their coming about is a painful and slow

process113. For instance, the promised land remains a struggle and reason for much

conflict throughout Scripture, up to this day. And yet, Abraham’s faith becomes the rock

upon which God decides to build the world. A rock that as Pope Benedict XVI tells us

holds back chaos and destruction. This faith sustains the world114.

One needs to keep in mind that the long-term vision of Genesis is that ultimately the

reign of sin will be broken and the world will become what its Creator originally intended

it to be – Eden, where God’s rich supply including land, food and fellowship satisfies

humanity’s needs115.

However, one theme that emerges from this story and which touches on the ‘cruel’ is

obedience, that is God’s request to sacrifice Isaac. God asks Abraham to walk before

him and be blameless. He asks for circumcision - a sign of the covenant, but also asks

Abraham to kill Isaac, the long awaited son, in sacrifice. Abraham’s response is told with

sparse detail; of course no words can do justice to his feelings at this request, yet he

obeys blindly116. However, Scripture also says that God made this request to test

Abraham and not because he wanted Isaac to be sacrificed (cf. Gen 22, 1).

However, in his request to sacrifice Isaac, God points out “whom you love” (Gen 22, 1-

2). I am afraid that this image of God has captured our imagination and not in a positive 113 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 35-45. 114 Benedictus. Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI, edited by Rev. Peter John Cameron, O.P., France, 201. 115

Ibid. 116 Ibid. Abraham, in New Advent. (on-line) : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01051a.htm [15 September 2010].

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manner. A cruel voice asking for the killing/sacrifice of that which our heart most loves.

Abraham obeys God’s request and because of his obedience he receives the blessing –

“because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen 22, 15-18). Having said that, in this story we

find a twofold obedience: the first one to kill but the second not to kill. One could argue

that in the second command ‘do not kill’ is a fuller revelation and true image of God.

The first command sounds like a set up or trick played on Abraham, in fact it is ‘only’ a

test. Maybe God is ‘mimicking’ idol worship - a demand which humans felt and

practiced at the time - to reveal himself fully and show who he really is, in his second do-

not-kill command. Maybe God is teaching Abraham that his heart should love God first

and not make an idol, even of his beloved son - the long awaited son, the fulfillment of

God’s promise to Abraham117. Matthew Nederlanden states that “for Abraham (and

Abraham's time) the abrupt, unexpected event was not a God who asked for a sacrifice

(every god did that) but a God who stopped one”. Nederlanden argues that “The story of

God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is about replacing all those old, false ideas of a

God who is out to get us, with the true story of a God who cares for us”118.

The story of Abraham and Isaac highlights the fact that Isaac was burdened to carry the

wood and knife, a common story we find in situations of torture or concentration camps

where humans are brutally killed119. It seems that for Abraham and his culture there was

already a very good knowledge on how to carry out that kind of sacrifice. Human

sacrifice was present, if not in Abraham’s family and ‘religion’ surely in other pagan

rituals. God seems to be establishing through Isaac the replacement of animal sacrifice to

117 Jewish Midrash tell us that Abraham struggled and searched for the true God all his life and understood that what others considered as idols were finite things. See Stories of Our Ancestors, in MyJewishLearning. (on-line) : http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Rabbinics/Midrash/Midrash_Aggadah/How_Midrash_Functions/Abraham_and_Sarah_in_Midrash.shtml?TSRB [5 September 2010]. 118 MATTHEW NEDERLANDEN, Coming Out of Ur - How the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac defined God for all of us, in MatthewNederlanden, (on-line) : http://www.matthewnederlanden.com/bible-commentary/abraham-sacrificing-isaac-genesis-22.php [10 September 2010]. 119 One can find various references to prisoners having to dig their own graves before their execution. See: Cambodian Communities Out of Crisis. Cambodia’s Holocaust, (on-line) : http://www.cambcomm.org.uk/kflf.html [16 September 2010]. Poniatowa, in Aktion Reinhard Camps, (2006) (on-line) : http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/poniatowa.html [16 September 2010]. WW2 People’s War. An Archive of World War Two Memories – written by the public, gathered by the BBC, in BBC, (on-line) : http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/06/a2013706.shtml [16 September 2010].

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Rabbinics/Midrash/Midrash_Aggadah/How_Midrash_Functions/Abraham_and_Sarah_in_Midrash.shtml?TSRB


http://www.matthewnederlanden.com/bible-commentary/abraham-sacrificing-isaac-genesis-22.php


http://www.cambcomm.org.uk/kflf.html

http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/poniatowa.html

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the pagan human sacrifice for Abraham and future Israel. Through this story God is

clear. Human sacrifice is not pleasing to him, but for the time being animal sacrifice is

accepted, though later through Jesus Christ he will do away with this entirely. Jesus

fulfills that kind of sacrifice120. And yet God tests the human heart and its desires.

In the dialogue between Abraham and Isaac we can also glimpse upon a certain kind of

trust in God whilst at the same time loss for words. Isaac asks Abraham where the lamb

is – so animal sacrifice was already a common practice in Abraham’s family121.

Abraham answers that God will provide. It is not clear from the text if Abraham is lying

to Isaac or if he is lost for words or if he is simply hiding God’s true request. It seems

that the text is pointing towards a deeper irrational trust in God, a deeper hope in

Abraham’s heart. However one may also glimpse a sense of disappointment,

helplessness and hopelessness. God’s desires are not yet clear for Abraham.

However, God intervenes when Isaac is already tied, obviously understanding that he is

the offering by now. Silence is tick in the text. However, the angel stops Abraham yet

approves his action and obedience “for now I know that you fear God and did not

withheld your son” (Gen 22, 12). One wonders about the impact of all this on Isaac. It is

not clear why God needs this kind of proof from the human person. Maybe God knows

that it is the human heart that needs to go so far. Scripture often makes references to sin

as having its root in the desires of the human heart. Isaac is not sacrificed yet there is

another kind of sacrifice going on here. The request itself must have cost both Abraham

and Isaac much. In this story God approves of Abraham’s actions. At the same time

Abraham’s hope that “the Lord will provide” (Gen 22, 14) is fulfilled – the ram replaces

the child. Scripture stress Abraham’s obedience and that blessings came forth from it (cf.

Gen 22, 15-19). One could also argue that Abraham had a very deep and profound desire

for this God to go so far and fulfill his desires.

120 RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, translated by Patrick Gregory, London 2005, 4-6. 121 René Girard claims that animal sacrifice is simply a replacement of human sacrifice but the dynamic at work (“victimage mechanisms”) is still the same. See RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, translated by Patrick Gregory, London 2005, 1-40.

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2.3.2 The Historical Books In the Historical Books, Scripture tells us that King Ahab promoted Baal (god-of-

fertility) worship, raising it to a state religion. Ahab persecuted YHWH’s prophets and

viewed them as trouble makers. Ironically the land is hit by great famine and we see

Elijah and Elisha struggling against Baal worship122.

Alongside the command of God and Elijah’s obedience we also find God’s providence -

the ravens and the widow feed Elijah. For instance the widow who had lost all hope was

able to be generous and trust the word of the prophet, thus finding life and blessings123.

This is another insight into the character of God as revealed by Scripture.

As the story develops, the widow’s son is dying and she asks Elijah why he brought

remembrance of her sin and thus her sons’ death as punishment. I find this very

interesting. Somehow it echoes the fear of Abraham’s God who asks for the sacrifice of

those we love. We find here a fear of God as the one who punishes, as the one who needs

human sacrifice of that loved human being as atonement and the understanding of him as

the one who brings death. The same logic seems to be present once again in this text, a

God demanding the human sacrifice of those we mostly love. Yet God reveals himself

once more as Other124 to this. He is the one who brings healing, life and gives ‘us’ back

those we love. In front of this revelation the widow proclaims: “Now I know that you are

a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (1 Kings 17, 24).

The unique God of life is recognized and there is joy. It is also interesting to note that the

widow makes reference to sin. One wonders if she is carrying any guilt, the root of her 122 PHILIP SATTERTHWAITE – GORDON MCCONVILLE , Exploring the Old Testament. The Histories, Vol 2., Great Britain 2007, 161. Idol, Idolatry, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols., editor-in chief David Noel Freedman, (1992) III-376-III-381. 123 PHILIP SATTERTHWAITE – GORDON MCCONVILLE , Exploring the Old Testament. The Histories, Vol 2., Great Britain 2007, 163-169. RENE CAMILLERI, Faith’s Gentle Call. Thirty-second Sunday of the Year (8th November 2009), in TimesofMalta.com (on-line) : http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091108/religion/faiths-gentle-call [17 September 2010]. 124 The term ‘Other’ is often used by James Alison to identify God as the Unique, True and Life-Giving God who is in no way similar to anything or anyone the human person knows. See JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts & New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 160-175.

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fear. It seems to me that one could also read the healing of the widow’s son possibly also

as an act of forgiveness and liberation from guilt, fear and sin itself.

Moreover, tied to Elijah’s obedience we find the promise of rain [life]. On the road

Obadiah meets Elijah and we find once more an expression of that fear of punishment

and death, expressed by the widow earlier on. Both express a concern about sin and the

fear of its consequence, punishment and death. In this case God is not punishing nor

correcting Obadiah but approaching him for co-action. Is Scripture telling us that

YWHW is grossly misunderstood? It seems to me that Scripture is pointing towards the

fact that instead of worshipped as the true God who brings life, YWHW is feared as the

god of death. Human desire leans towards life and yet this Other God who is the source

of life is feared and believed to be the one who brings death, the one who asks us to

‘sacrifice’ and give him those we mostly love and desire. On the other hand, it seems to

me that Scripture is hinting towards the fact that matters of the heart are problematic and

that they can lead us away from God, thus misleading us into idolatry125 and death.

God’s action is purifying to the heart, but his action seems to be grossly misunderstood.

God always invites humans into a fuller experience of life where death is no more –

however this process involves detachment (sacrifice?) and re-attachment126.

Maybe looking at the first letter of John we can find a re-telling of these fears of ours as

human and misunderstandings of God, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is

from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love

does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4, 7). Later in that same letter John

explains, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with

punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he

first loved us” (1 John 4, 18).

One of the important elements within the Elijah’s story is the contest with the prophets of

Baal. God consents to all of Elijah’s requests. During the preparation for the sacrifice 125 NATHAN MACDONALD, Recasting the Golden Calf: The Imaginative Potential of the Old Testament’s Portrayal of Idolatry, in Idolatry False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity – Stephen C.Barton, London 2007, 22-39. 126 IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 28-34.

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and its execution God is silent yet he responds to all of Elijah’s prayers. In an almost

disturbing way, the story ends with Elijah ordering the killing of the false prophets. The

order fulfills the Law but it is Elijah’s command and not coming from God (cf. 1 Kings

18, 40). Did Elijah fall into that same old trap of believing that murdering another human

being, even if he is an ‘enemy’ of God is pleasing and the way to serve the true and living

God? Following this command and killing something else happens for Elijah.

However, later on in this same story God does request the killing of people, following the

anointing of new kings and a prophet (cf. 1 Kings 19, 15-18). Yet, we hear nothing of

these killings. A new beginning is approaching for Israel, new foundations are to be laid

once more but murder is yet present. Some of these texts remain problematic unless read

as Girard and Alison point out, that such commands from God are not in actual fact his

commands but human projections and a ‘primitive’ understanding of this same God and

his desires127. And yet, these texts remain problematic with regards to the understanding

of God’s character as entirely without violence.

2.4 Desire, Violence & Murder in the Old Testament

“No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be

tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire,

being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin,

and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death” (James 1, 13-15).

Scripture shows us that from Adam and Eve’s fall, humanity starts degenerating and Cain

is presented to us as worse than his father Adam. Genesis tells us that both Cain and

Abel offer sacrifices to God. Interestingly this practice is not mentioned as happening in

the garden of Eden. For some reason Cain is failing and his offer is rejected. It also

seems that Cain enters a pattern of desire which is destructive. Scripture indicates that

127 RENÉ GIRARD, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, translated with a foreword, by James G. Williams, United States 2001, 103-160.

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Cain is envious of Abel; rivalry entered between the two brothers. Cain ends up

murdering Abel (cf. Gen 4, 8). Proverbs tells us “A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk

are born to share adversity” (Prov 17, 17). Genesis seems to be telling us that turning

away from genuinely worshiping the true living God leads to violence, to the extent of

being able to murder one’s own brother.128 It is also telling us that family relations can

be deeply problematic and sin takes root within fraternal relations.

The Bible tells us that Cain got angry because God had no regard for his offering. On the

other hand we also see God entering in dialogue with Cain, asking him about his anger.

God warns him that sin was lurking behind the door. He also tells him that if he does

well his offering will be accepted. And then God utters a phrase which for the purposes

of this study seems to be key “its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4, 7).

Interestingly, God does not warn Abel about the risk of his pending murder129. Much is

revealed in this story, yet many gaps are left unfilled. It is clear that the problem has

something to do with Cain’s heart - anger, envy, rivalry and violent desire130 are present.

As James says in his letter, desire can bring forth sin. Another insight is found into this

story if read in parallel to the fratricide story of Romulus killing Remus, which obtained

divine favour. René Girard tells us that the Cain and Abel story is similar to other stories

of fratricide. However, in other mythological stories, the gods favour the one who killed

128 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 22-27. STEPHEN C. BARTON, Humanity and the Idols of the Gods in Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities, in Idolatry. False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity, London 2007, 58-72. 129 Abel in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, editors: T. Desmond Alexander – David W. Baker, USA 2003, 5. 130 It is interesting to note that rivalry is very much present in Cain and Abel’s quarrel in the story as described by the Jewish Midrash.: RABBI ISCAH WALDMAN, Filling in the Gaps, in MyJewishLearning (on-line) : http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Rabbinics/Midrash/Midrash_Aggadah/How_Midrash_Functions.shtml [18 September 2010]. Moreover, Girard argues that the story of Cain and Abel is a story like other mythological stories of ‘warring brothers’ and that the death of one brother represents the start of a civilization (ex: Romulus & Remus). However, what’s unique in the Bible is that the story condemns this violence, exposing it for what it is. Scripture tells us that Abel was innocent. God clearly denounces such violence and it happened because Cain took leave from God. God forbids all murder. See RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 3-46; 105-125; 141-179.

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his brother and blessings come forth out of that ‘sacrifice’131. René Girard tells us that in

Cain and Abel’s story Scripture changes its theological lesson. Something different is

revealed about the true and living God.132 He does not bless Cain for killing his brother

Abel but punishes him. The interpretation that God gives for Abel’s killing is not that of

sacrifice which pleases him, bringing about blessings for Cain, but that of murder which

brings about punishments for Cain133.

Moreover, if one searches Scriptures to look for passages where God refuses sacrifices

we might glimpse on the reasons why Cain’s offering might have been refused. In

Deuteronomy 12, 31; 18, 9-12; Psalms 106, 38, Jeremiah 19, 4-5 we find that in pagan

culture sacrifice meant human sacrifice or the killing of the innocent. God clearly states

that this is not acceptable to him. In other texts of the Old Testament such as 1 Samuel

15, 22-23, Proverbs 21, 3, Isaiah 1, 11; 16-17, Jeremiah 7, 22-23, Hosea 6, 6 and Micah

6,8 we find that God only accepts burnt offerings if these are an expression of faithful

love towards God, obedience, love and justice towards one’s own neighbour, especially

the weak and vulnerable. If such conditions are missing the sacrifice is not pleasing.

God’s desire for humanity is to be humble and practice love and justice towards each

other; sacrifice in itself is unimportant, what matters is the disposition of one’s own heart.

Jesus in Matthew 5, 23-24 and in Mark 12, 41-44 follows this tradition and again gives

this kind of command – revealing God’s heart and desires for humanity. Clearly, the

above mentioned conditions are missing in Cain’s sacrifice. He misplaced priorities and

missed what is really important and pleasing to God in his own zeal for that same God.

In Matthew 25, 41-46 we have again an expanded explanation of this same lesson. It

seems to me that God’s word to Cain “its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen

4, 7) is reminding Cain about his parents’ sin, hoping that he does not commit the same

mistake. As pointed earlier, Adam and Eve allow the serpent to rule over them rather

131 RENÉ GIRARD, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1986, 88-94. 132 Abel in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, editors: T. Desmond Alexander – David W. Baker, USA 2003, 5. 133 RENÉ GIRARD, The Girard Reader, edited by James G. Williams, New York 1996, 149.

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than ruling over it themselves. Cain falls into the same pitfall with grave consequences

for Abel, himself and future generations.

Genesis shows us that the desire which Cain was not able to master, the sin lurking

behind his door, was the desire to murder his brother probably because of envy.

Scripture records this ‘first’ murder in human history. Interestingly, Jesus often refers to

Satan as murderer134. Scripture seems to be showing us again that by not worshiping the

true-living-God we move allegiance and become an image of Satan. The book Wisdom

of Solomon elaborates much about this and Cyprian reflecting and writing extensively

about it 135.

Going back to Cain and Abel’s story, the murder of Abel brings consequences for Cain.

Perpetual nomadism is Cain’s punishment and the ground does not yield to him. The

latter was already a punishment after the first fall of humankind. The intensity of the

punishment seems to get the worst at this point. Cain is to be a fugitive and a wanderer.

It is interesting to note that he is afraid of being killed. Scripture seems to be hinting that

violence is contagious and works on principles of reciprocity136. God intervenes to mark

Cain and intervenes to stop this violent cycle (cf. Gen, 4, 15-16). One could also read

134 In John 8, 44 Jesus makes reference to Satan as murderer and liar. He points out that those who follow his desires are like him – the reference is to those desiring to kill Him. Moreover, Jesus tells them that Satan is their father. 135 Cyprian in De zelo et livore, warns Christians about jealousy and envy, reminding them that the devil fell and destroyed others through these vices. He also claims that these same vices rob man of the grace of immortality. He argues that through the envy of the devil death penetrated into the world and says that those who are envious imitate the devil. Cyprian tells us that envy is the source of many other sins such as hatred, discord, ambition, avarice and disobedience. All these are enemies for the unity of the church. He also argues that the bond of the Lord’s peace is broken through these vices, they violate brotherly charity, truth is adulterated and unity divided. Envy and jealousy bring about heresies and schisms. Cyprian’s remedy for envy is love of neighbour, especially those previously hated. He instructs to favor those envied, to imitate good man, to rejoice with them, to congratulate those who are better and share with them in united love. Becoming their associate is for Cyprian a remedy which he describes as an alliance of charity and the bond of brotherhood. See JOHANNES QUASTEN, Patrology, Christian Classics, vol 2., United States of America, 1959, 360-361. 136 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 22-27. René Girard argues that Cain was jealous of his brother but unlike his brother he did not have the sacrificial outlet that Abel had, that of animal sacrifice. Moreover scripture reveals to us that a culture that starts with violence will returns to violence. See RENÉ GIRARD, The Girard Reader, edited by James G. Williams, New York 1996, 74-76.

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this text as a revelation about who God is – the one who does not reciprocate violence

with violence but breaks its cycle though he still punishes the wrongdoer.

The theme of desire, envy and jealousy is a recurrent one within Scripture. It is a human

problem of great concern. James in his first letter again reflects upon this,

“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not

come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do

not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain

it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not

ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend

what you get on your pleasures” (James 4, 1-3).

Soon after the Cain story the Bible tells us about the flood story. The flood is sent

because of the perversity of human thoughts and uncontrollable universal violence

amongst all creatures, especially humans. Wenham argues that human thought tended

inexorably towards evil because of misguided worship which also involved cult

prostitution. Scripture describes this cult as the mating of the sons of gods with human

women137. It seems to me that here we find a reference to idolatry and sexual practices.

This grieved God to his heart, (cf. Gn 6, 5-6; 11), and because of this the world had to be

returned to original chaos138.

On the other hand, the Noah story also teaches us that a righteous man’s sacrifice can

atone for the sins of others, actually for the sins of the whole human race. Scripture also

teaches us that the world of harmony that God originally created is a forlorn hope.

Though the flood purifies the earth, humanity’s thought still tends towards sin. Thus,

God lays down the principles to stop violence from getting out of hand. Primal

vegetarianism is replaced by permission to eat meat – no animal blood can be consumed

though. Benevolent supremacy is replaced by fear and dread. Moreover, the principle of

137 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 28-29. 138 Ibid.

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retribution is introduced, a punishment to match the crime committed mainly to stop

retaliation and violence getting out of hand once more139.

2.5 Idolatry & True Image of God in the Old Testament

In the miracle accounts of Elijah and Elisha we find the inter-play between life and death.

Like in Genesis, YHWH is presented as the one who is associated with life, provides

food, enables barren woman to conceive and if kings listen to the prophets, all Israel

would find life140.

Elijah is presented as the second Moses. With him lies the hope that sick Israel may be

restored to life but the Books of Kings also suggest that Elijah and Elisha basically did

not manage to transform Israel’s situation141.

In the story of Elijah it is clear that it is not acceptable to worship other gods alongside

YHMH and religious unfaithfulness is the greatest failing. Yet being righteous is also not

a guarantee against disaster. The Historical books teach us that the human response to

prophecy is as significant as the prophecy itself – repentance is one such response. The

Historical books, like Genesis tell us that prophecy is always fulfilled but sometimes this

happens immediately and at other times over generations142. Elijah’s own life is a fight

against false images of God, a struggle that also becomes an internal one because he

himself had constructed an image of this same God he so ardently loved, a God who is

always beyond the grasp of the human person 143.

139 Ibid. 140 PHILIP SATTERTHWAITE – GORDON MCCONVILLE , The Histories (Exploring the Old Testament.), 4 Vols., Great Britain 2007, 161-164. 141 Ibid, 161-164.. ALEXANDER VELLA, OCARM, Elia Profeta, in Dizionario Carmelitano, diretto da Emanuele Boaga, O.Carm - Luigi Borriello, O.C.D., Roma 2008, 310-314. 142 PHILIP SATTERTHWAITE – GORDON MCCONVILLE , Exploring the Old Testament. The Histories, 4 Vols., Great Britain 2007, 175-178. 143 ALEXANDER VELLA, OCARM, Elia Profeta – Elia nella Bibbia, in Dizionario Carmelitano, diretto da EmanueleBoaga, O.Carn - Luigi Borriello, O.C.D., Roma 2008, 312. PERRIN, B. DAVID, Studying Christian Spirituality, New York 2007.

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At God’s request Elijah confronts Ahab and the people placing before them a clear

question, “For how long will you limp?” (1 Kings 18, 21). He is encouraging them to

choose. Here we find a clear and direct confrontation with idolatry. One could argue that

throughout Scripture we find that the problem of idolatry is linked to human desire, that

is, the heart desiring more than one god maybe depending on who satisfies our own

desires most.

Later, a dramatic contest between YHWH and the prophets of Baal follows. Bulls are

sacrificed. In this contest rivalry is present once more; one sacrifice is pleasing to God -

he reveals himself, the other sacrifice is not and nothing happens. The two groups of

people144 are competing with each other, also for power, might and dominion – to re-

establish a civilisation. I wonder if this sacrifice story echoes something of Abel and

Cain. In this story the false worshippers end up being killed, unlike the story of Cain and

Abel, where Abel the true worshiper of God is the one who is murdered. However,

killing is present in both stories.

In this part of the Elijah story we find that on the one hand God is presented very much as

the stereotypical ‘God’, the one who by fire, might and power shows himself. However,

it seems that in this bit of the story God is very silent, though acting. It is Elijah who is

doing much of the talking, requests and demands (prayers). Elijah takes centre stage and

God performs.

In this narrative we also find exposed an interesting ritual which Elijah mocks, that of the

idolaters cutting themselves and the Bible points out, “as was their custom” (1 Kings 18,

28). Something in their sacrifice is not working. It seems that the blood of their bulls is

not pleasing to the gods, so would human blood satisfy their desires? It seems to me that

this ritual uncovers an unconscious fear and understanding within the pagan rituals, that

really and truly the gods desire human blood.

144 It also seems that Kings views Israel as ideally a single 12-tribe entity. This comes across in the narrative of Elijah on Mt. Carmel where he builds an altar using “twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob”. See PHILIP SATTERTHWAITE - GORDON MCCONVILLE, Exploring the Old Testament TheHistories, 4 vols., Great Britain 2007, 180.

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The Elijah story seems to tell us something about two forms of idolatry; there is for sure

the worshiping of images, of animals or other created things. Secondly about a more

subtle form of idolatry that the righteous person and worshiper of the true-living God can

also be trapped into. God, who responds with fire to Elijah’s request seems to be telling

Elijah something else, that the fullness of his presence is not to be found in that fire but in

sheer silence – an encounter with God after the experience of darkness and night. The

theme of this subtle idolatry is further explored in the New Testament. I will touch upon

this theme also when discussing John of the Cross in Chapter Three. However, the Elijah

account leaves us in a problematic state from a Girardian point of view. Both idol

worshipers and worshipers of the true living God are violent; murder is present on both

sides of the camp.

2.6 Darkness & Transformations in the Old Testament

In the Historical Books we find that following the contest-sacrifice Elijah falls off centre

stage. Afraid, he flees. Ironically, a threat from Jezebel shakes him to this point. He

moves to the solitary wilderness and asks for death. A ‘strange’ anti-climax to the

previous story of might and power. It seems that something is being revealed in Elijah’s

heart. He appears to be tired and exhausted but there seems to be an echo of guilt as well

- that whilst fighting idolatry he too fell in that kind of sin in its subtlest form. Elijah

points out that he is not better than his ancestors (cf. 1 Kings 19, 4-5), this often referring

to sins of idolatry145.

Suddenly a messenger of God commands Elijah to get up and eat otherwise the journey

will be too hard. Again, God reveals himself as the One who sustains and demands

movement and journeying. It seems that it is through this journey that Elijah will get to

know God and himself more. For Elijah, this journey seems to be the cut off point

between life and death. Elijah seems to be purified once more. He goes through a desert

experience. Elijah arrives at mount Horeb where he settles in a cave. I think that the 145 G. K. BEALE, We Become What We Worship. A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, United States of America 2008, 141-160.

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symbolism of the cave is an important one. Another important element is the night.

Here, we find Elijah, in a cave alone at night in total darkness146. Possibly, this is also a

reference to a womb or a tomb, maybe to both at the same time. It seems that this is a

place where something is dying yet something is being born. Scripture is telling us about

that mystical space for transformation147

At this point Elijah reminds God about his zealous action and how alone he also feels.

Elijah seems to be feeling abandoned, even by God. Later on God answers him about

this, almost in a humoristic way, pointing out there were seven thousand who did not fall

into idolatry (cf. 1 Kings 19, 18).

From the positions of lying down God commands Elijah to go out of the cave and stand

(cf. 1 Kings 19, 11-12). God is revealing something ‘more’ of himself, something

‘fuller’148. Elijah witnesses the wind, an earthquake and fire. I find the use of fire here

as very interesting. During the sacrifice-contest, God did reveal himself as fire at Elijah’s

command – showing people that he was accepting Elijah’s offering and that he was the

true God. Yet now God is showing Elijah that he is not to be found in fire. At Horeb,

God reveals himself in sheer silence. Possibly God is teaching Elijah that even though he

responded with fire during the sacrifice-contest-game, he is not after all that kind of god,

and that kind of sacrifice is not according to the desire of his heart.149 The contest-

sacrifice might reflect Elijah’s own ‘primitive’ cultural understanding of the living God, 146 Night is of course a very powerful symbol within Carmelite tradition particularly in John of the Cross. See IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 51-93. RUTH BURROWS OCD, Essence of Prayer, London 2006, 99-105. The Dark Night, 1. 1-14; 2. 1-25. The cave, often a symbol of the unconscious or female sexuality in psychology. See C. G. JUNG, Psychology and Alchemy, second edition translated by R.F.C Hull, London 1993, 153; 186-187; 333. ROSALIND POWELL, Dream Therapy interpretations and insights into the power of dreams, London 2000, 52-63. 147 KEES WAAIJMAN, The Mystical Space of Carmel. A Commentary on the Carmelite Rule, Leuven 1999, 169-196. 148 The idea of an anthropological understanding of gradual revelation is strong both within René Girard and James Alison. It seems to me that this is also true within this text, that of God showing himself slowly and gradually according to the capacity of the human person over time. See JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 33-59. A Very Brief Introduction, in Imitatio Integrating the Human Sciences (on-line) : http://www.imitatio.org/mimetic-theory/a-very-brief-introduction.html, [22 August 2011]. 149 In Scriptures we also find various references to God’s request that it is mercy that he wants and not sacrifice, amongst them: 1 Sam 15, 22. Pr 21, 3. Ho 6, 6. Is 1, 11. Jer 7, 22. Mi 6, 8. Mt 9, 13; 12, 7.


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his desires and demands, yet God’s true image is to be found elsewhere; in the sheer

silence, following a journey across darkness. James’ letter tells us that “Elijah was a

human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years

and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave

rain and the earth yielded its harvest” (James 5, 17-18). The real power of Elijah seems

to have been his prayer life and yet he was human like ourselves.

2.7 The Character of God as found in the New Testament

In the New Testament, Matthew presents Jesus as the one who teaches with divine power

and authority. He brings the possibility of a new existence to humanity and all creation.

As Moses encountered God on a mountain, so Jesus meets and speaks to his disciples on

a mountain. Matthew adds a spiritual dimension to the sermon on the Mount, probably

because he was addressing a community who were not physically poor and hungry. The

Matthean Jesus presents God’s demands, not by dispensing with the Law but by asking

for a deeper observance that gets to the reason of such demands – “be perfect, therefore,

as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5, 48). Matthew shows us that Jesus dares

explicitly to modify or correct what God said through Moses, showing us that he is more

authoritative than Moses. Jesus legislates with all the assurance of the God of Sinai. He

explains that the coming of the Kingdom will involve a dangerous struggle with Satan.

His prayer includes the asking for deliverance from this apocalyptic trial and the Evil

One150.

I personally feel that here Jesus is locating violence and revealing to us where it is

coming from. Like him, we have to confront ourselves with this violence which comes

from the murderer, the one who hates Jesus and humanity. Jesus urges his followers to

dedicate themselves totally to God as opposed to worrying about things of this world and

to examine themselves carefully instead of judging others. He assures us of God’s

generous answer to our prayers. He also teaches us to do to others what we would have

150 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 171-224.

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them do to us and cautions his followers about the narrowness of the gate and against

false prophets151.

Jesus demands clarity such as yes-yes and no-no answers and to go beyond the Law

itself. He tells his disciples not to offer violent resistance to the evil doer, to turn one’s

own cheek, to give one’s cloak, to walk the second mile and to give and not refuse those

who want to borrow. It is interesting that Jesus gives very clear examples of where we

might offer violent and angry resistance (cf. Mt 6. 7. 8) and he urges us to break the cycle

of violence. Jesus’ teaching tells us not to reciprocate violence with violence. He

teaches, later with his own life how to subvert these negative powers152.

He goes as far as commanding to love one’s enemies and to pray for those who persecute

us (cf. Mt 5, 43-44). A command he himself fulfills at the end of his earthly life (cf. Mt

26, 51-56). He tells us that the Father makes his sun shine and sends rain on the evil and

good ones, the righteous and the unrighteous (cf. Mt 5, 45-48). To do this non-violent

more is to receive the reward. He urges us to become non-violent, to go beyond human

judgment and a superficial understanding of situations, which often are marked with

shallowness. For Jesus this is the way of perfection, to be like the Father. Jesus is

teaching us that worshiping the true living God leads us into this non-violent way of

being and this kind of brotherly love. Yet violence will confront us; to be like the Father

is to desire no violence and hatred. One should not reciprocate it either.

Origen elaborates on this notion of perfection of likeness. He stresses that this is our

highest goal. It is the aim for Christians, to achieve this perfect likeness in the end, to

become as like God as far as possible; for this Christians need grace and one’s own

efforts, we achieve it through imitation of Christ.153

151 Ibid. J.R. PORTER, Jesus Christ, London 2007, 50-61. 152 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 41-44. 153 JOHANNES QUASTEN, Patrology, Christian Classics, vol 2., United States of America 1959, 94.

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Jesus emphasizes this more in our understanding of God throughout the Gospels. Jesus’

demands are to exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees which he uncovers

as false. Such fulfillment involves not merely not committing murder but not getting

angry or insulting one’s own brother and sister – Jesus tells us that we can also kill in this

way. As mentioned earlier on, he says that one should reconcile with one’s own brother

and sister first, then offer one’s offering (cf. Mt 5, 23). The Old Testament is full of such

stories of rivalry between brothers and sisters - Cain and Abel, Jacob’s wives and the

story of Joseph are other examples. Jesus explains that giving an offering with an angry

heart might lead to murder anyway, the offering per se offers no magic solution, but all

depends on what is going on in one’s heart. Interestingly, from murder Jesus moves on to

adultery and lust. He warns men that looking lustfully at a woman is also adultery of the

heart. Personally I feel that Jesus links lust to violence154. I wonder if this is also a

reference to humanity’s sins before the flood pointed out in section 2.4. Later on he goes

on to give a rather difficult speech where he claims that it is better to destroy part of one’s

own body than be thrown in hell. Clearly he is teaching us to avoid harming others.

2.8 Jesus’ Desire

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: to care for orphans and

widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1, 27).

In the New Testament one can also find something of what Jesus desires for humankind.

One of the important texts of the New Testament which seems to refer to the desire of

Jesus-God as pointed out by James Alison, is the Sermon on the Mount155. In this text

154 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 171-224. In an article written for a web-based magazine I reflected about the connection and link between lust and violence. See MARIO GERADA, (2008), The Gay Body – Incarnating Christianity in The Epistle, (on-line) : http://epistle.us/, 155 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts & New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 160-175. JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 42-45.

http://epistle.us/

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we see a reversal of all that society upholds. One may call it a subversive text156. Jesus

teaches how the way of the Kingdom works. Its desires are diametrically opposed to the

way the world functions. All that the Empire presents as desirable, Jesus abhors.

The poor (in spirit), those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst (for

righteousness), the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted because

of righteousness and those who are reviled and persecuted are in actual fact the ones

blessed by God. Jesus tells us that it is these who are the salt and light of the world (cf.

Mt 5, 1-48).

In another text found in Matthew 12, 1-8, Jesus shows us himself as the one who is

greater than the Temple, above the Sabbath, guiltless and the image of God holding the

Priesthood function – also forewarning his unjust condemnation. Here he reveals his

desire, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Mt 12, 7). A phrase that ties with a logic that

seems to be running within Scriptures. Jesus is revealing to us what the heart of YHWH

desires, a message found throughout the Old Testament as pointed out in section 2.4.

Moreover, Amos 4; 5 accentuates this same message once more. In Amos, God is very

clear “Seek me and live” (Am 5, 4), a statement often repeated within this book. It seems

to me that the fullness of these teachings about God’s desires are difficult to

‘comprehend’ even for many humans today. As Elizabeth Stuart claims, “our desire is

too easily perverted into lust”,157 and lust is usually not only sexual but also for power,

riches, prestige and other ‘worldly’ things. It is here that lies the key to problem with

human desires. When our desires are no longer modeled according to the desires of God,

they become perverted into envy, lust and violence as subtle and hidden these may be.

Jesus through his Sermon on the Mount reveals God’s desires. This in turn reveals

problematic human desires which forge societies by excluding some, rejecting or

156 SHANE CLAIBORNE, The Irresistible Revolution. Living as an Ordinary Radical, United States of America 2006, 157-189. SHANE CLAIBORNE – CHRIS HAW, Jesus for President, United States of America 2008, 71-124. James Alison also argues that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was not teaching morals but rather making available an anthropology of desire. See JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts & New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 164. 157 ELIZABETH STUART and others, Religion is a Queer Thing. A Guide to the Christian Faith for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People, London 1997, 54.

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committing violence to others. Societies modeled on that kind of civilization built by

Cain. Jesus shows us that it is amongst those who society rejects and oppresses that

God’s own desires are to be found, understood and fulfilled. It is about loving inclusion

of those who are rejected and not oppression.

2.9 Darkness & Transformations in the New Testament

Darkness is also present in the New Testament. Jesus himself walks through darkness.

In Gethsemane he was grieved, agitated and asked the three apostles accompanying him

to stay awake with him. He prayed that if possible he would not go through this. He is

pained that his three companions could not stay awake. It is a very tragic part of Jesus’

own story and reveals the weakness and fragility of human nature. Not only it is a time

of trial but also a time where the vulnerability of the human person including that of

Jesus, in front of violence is revealed. It is interesting to note the dynamic at play: Jesus

was awake and alert, he knew what was going to happen and he suffered. The apostles

were sleeping, not only insensitive to Jesus’ pain, fear and needs, but oblivious to the

violence that soon was going to be unleashed. Their reaction reveals that even though

Jesus was trying to prepare them, they were not listening.

The Chief Priests and Elders, who are supposed to hold wisdom and protect society, in

actual fact confer together to bring about the death of Jesus. They manage to do so.

Proverbs tells us “One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are

both alike an abomination to the Lord” (Prov 17, 15). Matthew goes into details about

the tortures and brutality Jesus had to endure, the display of manly power and lynching.

The story particularly shows how patriarchic religious and civil powers can destroy one

human person and how vulnerable that individual is in front of all that kind of power.

The passion of Jesus is a dramatic and tragic unfolding of brutality, cruelty and violence

unleashed on him. We see how men humiliate, torture, abuse and use violence against

him. He is rendered vulnerable, powerless and victimized158.

158 Balthasar argues that Girard’s theory fails on some points primarily with regards to God’s demand for justice and ‘atoning sacrifice’ concept, which according to Balthasar, Girard neglects. He holds on to the idea of God’s ‘wrath’ and ability to exact retribution. Balthasar also claims that the idea of ‘solidarity’ to

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It also important to note that Scripture is pointing out to us that it is those who reject the

Son of God who are violent towards him and kill him. Yet the Son of God and the one

who teaches us true worship of the Father has no violence in him. On the other hand, the

Gospel presents women-disciples-of-Jesus as those who can somehow identify with him,

pity him, understand what is happening at a deeper level and in their own way try to

protect him. They cry for him and reach out. They also take bold and courageous steps,

like Claudia, Pilate’s wife. Women in various ways and at different degrees were victims

(and at times still are) of that patriarchal society159. Elizabeth Stuart claims “patriarchy

has created us in its image”.160 Women knew something of men’s violence and brutality

often being the objects of that kind of violence161.

Like René Girard and James Alison, I also feel that the Gospel reveals the trial and

passion of Jesus for what it is - an evil conspiracy that is being unleashed on a guiltless

and innocent victim killed to protect the establishment and the powers to be162.

Moreover, it is also revealing humanity’s rejection of God and men’s violence towards

him. James Alison speaks of deicide163. Even most of his men-disciples, those who

recognize him as the Son of God abandon him. Only the women and the beloved

disciple, from those who recognize him as the Son of God, stay.

Jesus on the cross is taunted, mocked and challenged to prove that he is the Son of God.

And yet, the elements and earth herself witness that Jesus is God. The Gospel speaks of

three hours of darkness, earthquakes and rocks splitting. Moreover, the temple curtain is

torn from top to bottom. The tombs are opened, with all of its eschatological meaning,

understand Jesus’ saving action is ‘insufficient’. He also states that Girard fails to play significance to the crucifixion as an event between the Father and the Son. Balthasar thus insists on attributing some form of complicity and violence to God for Jesus’ crucifixion. Having said that, Balthasar recognizes Girard’s original approach and the way he can ‘resolve’ particular difficulties with regards to the theology of atonement. See MICHAEL KIRWAN, Discovering Girard, London 2004, 108-111. 159 BEVERLY J. LANZETTA, Radical Wisdom. A Feminist Mystical Theology, U.S.A 2005, 7-26. 160 ELIZABETH STUART and others, Religion is a Queer Thing. A Guide to the Christian Faith for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People, London 1997, 31. 161 BEVERLY J. LANZETTA, Radical Wisdom. A Feminist Mystical Theology, U.S.A 2005, 7-26. 162 RENÉ GIRARD, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, translated with a foreword, by James G. Williams, United States 2001, 121-153. JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 61-87. 163 Ibid, 33-59.

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and the body of saints raised. After his resurrection these bodies go to the city to give the

good news. The death of Jesus immediately brought an outburst of life which is dramatic

yet always non-violent164. St Paul in his letter to the Colossians tells us that in Jesus

dwells the fullness of divinity bodily (cf. Col 2, 8-10).

2.10 The Crucifixion – Idolatry & Conspiracy, Sacrifice or Murder?

“Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light and in such a person there is no cause

for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the

darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on

blindness” (1 John 2, 10-11).

In Matthew Chapter 26 we see an escalation of violence and conspiracy to kill Jesus. In

this story a woman pours oil on his head. She seems to understand what is going to

happen. Jesus faces violence without reciprocating it. She learnt well Jesus’ command

and imitates him in her gesture. Whilst not reciprocating violence towards those who

were hostile towards Jesus, she creatively acts out one small gesture of love. She does

not try to protect him through violent means. She probably knows that she could not stop

that kind violence anyway.

Interestingly the disciples react angrily but Jesus defends her, warning them that she is

preparing him for burial and that this gesture of love will be remembered. He uses the

word remembrance later, in the breaking of the bread and sharing of wine as recorded in

Lk 22, 19 and 1 Co 11, 24-25. Jesus seems to be teaching us that only gestures of love

have substance and are remembered165.

Later, the text shows us the exchange between Jesus and Judas. In Jesus once again we

find no violence yet there seems to be hurt in his voice. However, Jesus does warn his

164 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 199-203. 165 Julian of Norwich mentions that Love is the only substance and therefore since evil and sin are not rooted in love they have no substance in themselves. See JULIAN OF NORWICH, Revelations of Divine Love, England 1998, 12.

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disciples in a strong tone of voice about Judas’ betrayal “woe to that one by whom the

Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born”

(Mt 26, 24).

Jesus explains in a masterfully way what is going to happen. He explains the New

Covenant and that it is his blood that will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins. He

also explains what is going to happen once he is arrested and falsely accused - that the

apostles will desert him. Peter denies this but it seems that he is still relying much on his

own strength and Jesus knows that this strength will fail him during that moment of

lynching (cf. Mt 26).

I wish to particularly point out that the Gospel highlights the fact that during the Jesus’

trial false testimony takes place. The Gospel also tells us that the death sentence is unjust

and false. In fact it is not very clear in terms of Jewish and Roman laws. Pilate is aware

of this. He also asks Jesus if he is the Messiah. It seems that Pilate was in fact doubting,

afraid that Jesus might be the one. Jesus answers him “From now on you will see the Son

of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mt 26,

64). However, the violent mechanism had been unleashed. The victim is chosen and the

dynamic is too strong even for Pilate to stop it. In fact he falls for it. As predicted, Peter

betrays Jesus as the cock crows, he remembers the words of the Lord and goes out

weeping bitterly (cf. Mt 26, 75). The text not only reveals how alone Jesus was and how

weak human nature is, but also what power the mob holds and how powerful lynching is,

even powerful characters like Pilate and Peter are unable to resist it166.

It is also interesting to note that Pilate tries to save Jesus by offering Barabbas as a

replacement-victim, as was custom (cf. Mt 27, 15-16). Pilate seems to be trying to

channel the violence of the mob onto somebody else, someone who at least is ‘justified’

to become such a victim. It is interesting to note that Pilate seems to have a deeper

insight into what is going on and the way the mob moves – the dynamics of lynching167.

The Gospel tells us that “He realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him 166 RENÉ GIRARD, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1986, 149-164. 167 Ibid, 105-106.

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over” (Mt 27, 18). Even though Pilate is aware of the dynamic at play here, he is not able

to stop the ‘game’. Jealousy brings about murder once more.

Returning to Pilate, Matthew tells us that he attempted to dialogue with the crowd yet

there was no possibility for that. The crowd was in a frenzy and the only option Pilate

found was to declare the innocence of this man and choose not to have anything to do

with his killing: yet he gives in to the crowd’s request. The pull is too strong. “I am

innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves” (Mt 27, 24). The blood of Jesus

forgives and washes away all of this violence. John, in his first letter tells us “The Son of

God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3, 8).

2.10.1 More of the same… In Act 7 Scripture tells us about the murder of Stephen – the first Christian martyr. Acts

presents this in parallel to the death of Jesus. Very similar dynamics are revealed such as

the elders and scribes stirring up the people and false witness given at the trial. In

Stephen we see someone who during his ‘trial’ gives a long witness and explanation of

Scripture and how Jesus fulfills them. For example, Stephen exposes the Patriarchs’

jealousy towards Joseph and how he was rescued from all his afflictions, how Moses the

one who was “beautiful before God”168 was rescued from violence and murder. Of

168 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 293-296. It is interesting to remember that the story of Moses includes the killing of an Egyptian and yet Moses is challenged and rejected by his Jewish brothers. He runs away and at this moment he encounters YHWH, who reveals to him that he has seen the mistreatment of the Israelites, heard their groaning and wants to rescue them. He tells Moses that he will re-send him to Egypt to deliver his people. The rejected one is in fact re-sent to become the liberator. Moses is the one who murders his Egyptian brother and at the same time liberates his Jewish brothers and sisters. Of course in Egypt the Israelites had become accustomed to their gods and heavily involved in practices of idolatry. The climax of this is revealed in the desert when they did not know what happened to Moses, sculpted a calf and offered sacrifices. Of course this shows that they knew what the practice was and ‘how to do it’, thus they returned to it. God is also angry about this and expresses that nothing human hands build can become his home or contain him because he created all. We also find references to characteristics God uses when referring to idolaters such as being stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, people opposing the holy spirit, and a key phrase as your ancestors which Stephen uses in this text. See: BEALE G. K., We Become What We Worship. A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, United States of America, 2008, 36-160.

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course all of this meant to reveal much about what was going on during his own trial169.

Once more, jealousy is presented as a root-cause-problem.

Stephen refers to ‘our ancestors’ with all its heavy meaning; having persecuted prophets,

betrayed and murdered them. The ancestors are also the ones who received the Law and

have not kept it. As mentioned earlier this could also have links with idolatry170.

Through this story Scripture reveals once more how those turning away from the living

God fall into the trap of violence and murder, ending up killing one’s own brother. Soon

after the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have yet again another killing, another Abel.

John in his first letter says, “Whoever does not love abides in death. All who hate a

brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life

abiding in them” (1 John 3, 15).

Stephen’s speech uncovers the reality about those persecuting him, showing them they

are repeating what their ancestors had done. He is telling the high priests that they are

not worshipers of the true living God and are murderers themselves. When this is

‘revealed’ they become angry and grind their teeth. At this point Stephen sees the Lord

in a vision but they cover their ears, shout and rush against him.

Scripture tells us that they dragged him out and stoned him whilst he asks God not to

hold this sin against them – like Jesus. It is also interesting to note that the text makes it a

point to tell us that Saul a young man was present and that the crowd put their coats at his

feet. He approved of their murder (cf. Ac 7, 58; 8, 1) and the crowd honoured him. Like

in the killing of Jesus, all of them believed that they were serving and pleasing God by

killing Stephen. Scripture once more tells us that this is inappropriate worship. Saul who

had a deep zeal for the Law, like the rest of them missed on the essential meaning of that

same Law. Like Cain he understood worship wrongly and approves the killing of his

own brother believing he will receive God’s favour by doing so. However, Chapter nine

describes Saul as breathing threats and murder. It is only later that Saul learns that his

169 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 293-296. 170 Ibid. BARTON C. STEPHEN, Idolatry. False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity, London 2007, 7-57.

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desire and zeal for God was problematic and in actual fact he was persecuting that same

God he was so eagerly trying to please (cf. Ac 9, 4-5).

Of course Stephen was challenging much of what was dear to the leaders, suggesting that

the Temple has no more meaning for instance. Brown points out that Stephen’s

interpretation of the Old Testament does not reflect standard understanding. He argues

that some scholars suggest that this is due to Stephen’s Samaritan background171 which

from Girard’s perspective makes him the ‘ideal’ scapegoat and victim within such a

dynamic. One needs to point out how the above mentioned texts expose group dynamics

of imitation around the killing and ‘sacrifice’ of one person172.

The text points at two continuations; that of Jesus’ death - the dynamic that led to his

killing is not over and ironically, it will be Saul who will also continue this story of

undoing. What Scripture clearly reveals in these texts is that even worshipers of the true-

living God may fall into idolatry and end up murdering their own brother, in the case of

Jesus their own God whom they did not recognize out of jealousy and zeal. God-given-

laws can become a source of idol worship themselves. Stuart states that “other queer

theologians have paid close attention to the God of traditional theology, interrogating him

(for this is an idol usually shaped as man), asking what right he has to be called God, and

re-imagining God in ways that are consistent with a focus on the here and now”.173

2.11 Problematic Texts in the New Testament

One of the parables used by James Alison to defend his position and which I chose to use

for this dissertation is about the man who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants.

Later he sends servants to collect the produce but the tenants seize them, beat one, kill

another and stone another. They also kill the bigger number of servants sent a second

171 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 296. 172 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 3-47. 173 ELIZABETH STUART and others, Religion is a Queer Thing. A Guide to the Christian Faith for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People, London 1997, 69.

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time round. Finally the Son is sent and we have this key phrase: “They will respect my

Son” (Mt 21, 37). The tenants knowing he is the heir kill him, believing they will get his

inheritance.

The above mentioned parable seems to reveal in fullness the intentions of the Father

sending us his son, and the evil intentions of those [us] who murdered him. It is also

about taking by force rather than being able to receive gratuitously174. This parable tells

us nothing of ‘sacrifice’ or of God’s need for human blood as ransom for humanity’s sins.

It seems to me that at the end of the parable there is another twist. Jesus asks those

around him what will the owner do and the answer is immediately that he will kill the

tenants. However, Jesus’ first reply is “‘The Stone that the builders rejected has become

the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing and it is amazing in our eyes’” (Mt 21, 42).

Jesus does not speak of violent murderous reciprocity but of something else. Yet later he

does mention that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from ‘you’ and given to a

people who produces the fruits. Similar to what we find in the Old Testament, murder

does bring about consequences. Life does not continue ‘as if nothing really happened’.

Those who murdered need to turn around and face their victim. Forgiveness is possible

but if not, the Kingdom is no longer available and moves elsewhere.

The description of the stone is another powerful image. Jesus says that the one who falls

on this stone will be broken to pieces; it will crush anyone on whom it falls (Mt 21, 44).

Consequences are present fashioned in strong Semitic expression but these are present for

those who reject of the Son of God.

Of course the chief priests and the Pharisees understand themselves to be the target of the

warning that the Kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a nation that will

produce fruits. They also understand that this sharp judgment is for them. Whilst

writing, Matthew is thinking of his church composed of Jews and Gentiles who believe in

174 JAMES ALISON (2007), The shape of daring imagination: coming out and coming home in James Alison.Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng44.html, [26 August 2011].


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Jesus. Thus, for Matthew to be worthy is primarily to respond to the demands of Jesus

for the Kingdom and not to be a Jew175. Jesus’ message is a universal one.

2.11.1 Judas Another problematic text within the New Testament is Judas’ despair and hanging

himself. This text shows that the betrayal and rejection of the other, in this case the Son

of God brings about serious consequences for one’s own life. It is interesting to note that

whilst the Jesus’ trial is in motion Judas repents (cf. Mt 27, 3). He actually tries to stop

what he himself started. However, he despairs in front of the fact that he cannot stop the

killing of Jesus, knowing that the game is not in his hands any longer. He cannot prevent

this murder. Matthew tells us that Judas hangs himself out of despair (cf. Mt 27, 3-5).

Again, Matthew uses similar language of conspiracy by the priests and elders when

discussing the blood money - they conferred together (cf. Mt 27, 7). The tragic ending of

Judas leaves many questions unanswered. Unlike the Cain story, God does not directly

intervene to either try and stop or punish Judas. The life of Judas ends up tragically in

the darkness of despair. Again Scripture uses strong Semitic expressions to describe such

event making it clear that it was him who betrayed and cast out Jesus. It was Judas who

handed over Jesus into the hands of those who wanted to murder him. Following that

action he does that very same thing to himself. In Scripture Judas remains remembered

as the traitor. In the Gospels Judas also represents those who ultimately reject the Son of

God even after knowing him176. Like Cain, Judas fails to understand what true worship

is all about. Though he lived with and recognized the true and living Son of God – the

messiah, he still failed to recognize his deeper true image and the implications of being in

relation to the true and living God. Judas once again reminds us that even those who live

close to the Son of God and worship him can fall into that same old trap of idolatry and

fail to offer true worship. The true worshiper of the living God does not betray his

brother leading him into murder.

175 RAYMOND E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 196. 176 Ibid, 200-222.

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2.11.2 Pilate’s Wife

On the other hand, another interesting element in the Gospel of Matthew is the story of

Pilate’s wife. It is in fact the only gospel that mentions her, hence my choice to use this

gospel. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Pilate’s wife sent word to him “Have nothing to

do with that Innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream

about him” (Mt 27, 19). Interestingly God is communicating with her, a Gentile. It is not

clear if God the Father is trying to stop the murder of Jesus. He is surely revealing Jesus’

innocence, a message Pilate’s wife clearly understands and recognizes. It is interesting to

note that she points out that she ‘suffered’ in the dream. One wonders if this suffering

was also her suffering, if she was a victim herself. Historically, Pilate seems to have

been greedy, inflexible and cruel in character. He had no qualms to use robbery and

oppression in his rule177. In literature we also find references to this, of course this is

more imaginative rather than exegetical or historical. Charlotte Bronte in her poem

“Pilate’s Wife’s Dream” tells us that Pilate had crushed his wife’s mind and taken away

her freedom. A common experience for many women in their relations to men178.

Bronte also points out the sins of both the Roman and Jewish worlds that killed Jesus.

Interestingly she points at sins of lust, gold and power. In Bronte’s poem Pilate’s wife

recognizes Jesus God-like goodness, as a stainless man who brings about a new

ordinance and who is wise and mild179.

The real name of Pilate’s wife remains unclear. The name Procula derives from the

translation of the apocryphal Acts of Pilate180. However, the name Claudia is ascribed to

her much later, in the seventh century in The Chronicle of Psuedo-Dexter181. However,

Pilate’s wife dream is also mentioned in the Gospel of Nicodemus. Interestingly Jesus is

177 Pilate, in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospel. A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship, editors: Joel B. Green – Scot McKnight – I. Howard Marshall, England 1992, 616. 178 BEVERLY J. LANZETTA, Radical Wisdom. A Feminist Mystical Theology, U.S.A 2005, 7-26. SHIVA VANDANA, Earth Democracy. Justice, Sustainability and Peace, London 2005, 120. 179 BRONTE CHARLOTTE, Pilate’s Wife Dream, in A Celebration of Women Writers (on-line) : http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bronte/poems/pbc-pilate.html [ 20 September 2010]. 180 Acts of Pilate, from Information on Acts of Pilate, in Early Christian Writings (on-line) : http://www.earlychristianwritings.com, [01 July 2012]. 181 Pontius Pilate’s Wife, in ENotes. Study Smarter, (on-line) : http://www.enotes.com/topic/Pontius_Pilate's_wife, [01 July 2012].

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bronte/poems/pbc-pilate.html

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Pontius_Pilate's_wife

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described to Pilate as sorcerer there, hence explaining the way he ‘tricked’ her182. I

believe that the words of Judith of the Old Testament sits nicely next to this figure “You

are putting the Lord Almighty to the test, but you will never learn anything!” (Judith 8,

13). Pilate’s wife does not manage to prevent the killing of Jesus.

In the Greek Orthodox Church Claudia Procula is a canonized saint183. In some

Orthodox traditions it is believed that Pilate committed suicide184, yet in some other

traditions he is revered as a saint along side Claudia185. In his writings, Origen suggests

that Claudia became a Christian. Several theologians of antiquity and the Middle Ages

share this view. It is interesting to note that some rival theologians contended that the

dream was sent to Claudia by Satan in an attempt to thwart the salvation plan that was

going to result from the death of Christ, John of the Cross being one of them186. An

interpretation of Claudia’s dream depends on how one reads the meaning of the

crucifixion, and here we return to Girard’s and Balthasar’s disagreement on God-the-

Father’s complicity or not in the death of Jesus187.

182 The Gospel of Nicodemus (1924) from the “Apocryphal New Testament”, M.R. James-translation and notes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, in Early Christian Writings (on-line) : http://www.earlychristianwritings.com, [20 September 2010]. 183 Pontius Pilate’s Wife in Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias (on-line) : http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/802656 [20 September 2010] DANIEL BURKE, In Pilate’s Wife, some see an unlikely saint (2009), in Religion News Service (on-line) : http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/in_pilates_wife_some_see_an_unlikely_saint2/ [20 September 2010]. 184 Christian tradition reported by Eusebius report that Pilate committed suicide after the trial of Jesus. See: Pilate, in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospel. A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship, editors: Joel B. Green – Scot McKnight – I. Howard Marshall, England 1992, 616. 185 Claudia Procula in eNotes.com, (on-line) : http://www.enotes.com/topic/Claudia_Procula [21 September 2010]. 186 Pontius Pilate’s Wife (2009) in Women in the Scriptures, (on-line) : http://womeninthescriptures.blogspot.com/2009/05/pontius-pilates-wife.html [21 September 2010]. St. John of the Cross is one such theologian. He describes Claudia’s vision as a deceptive vision coming from the devil under the guise of a ‘good vision’ - ‘And then there are the visions Pilate’s wife had about not condemning Christ [Mt 27, 19]. See The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 16, 3. 187 MICHAEL KIRWAN, Discovering Girard, London 2004, 108-110.


http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/802656

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/in_pilates_wife_some_see_an_unlikely_saint2/

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Claudia_Procula

http://womeninthescriptures.blogspot.com/2009/05/pontius-pilates-wife.html

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2.12 Non-Violence

One of the striking characteristics of Jesus is in fact his non-violent approach even at the

point where he was being lynched and led to his own death. Jesus does not retaliate

against his aggressors and corrects Peter for using his sword. Judas betrays Jesus with a

kiss. Brown points out that Judas addresses Jesus as ‘Rabbi’ when Jesus had prohibited

this specifically. Judas uses this term at the last supper as well. Amidst all of this, Jesus

commands Peter to put his sword back. Even at this moment he teaches that those who

take the sword will perish by the sword, he heals the wounded soldier. In front of all this,

the disciples flee, yet Jesus keeps on creating ‘something else’188. The image of Jesus at

this moment in his life has captured the imagination of Christians and non-Christians

alike. For many it is a scandalous and troubling image to ‘see’, a man who accepts

without resistance and violent reciprocity such an end. On the other hand, Jesus’ non-

violence has been and still is a great source of inspiration for many others. Having said

that the New Testament is not rid of violence entirely either. In the book of Revelation

powerful violent texts are once again present. However, Jesus sets this model for us for

both the fulfillment of the Law and to be perfect like the Father is. The standards are

high and a struggle to get there but only through this struggle are we to recognize the true

image of God.

2.13 Beyond Darkness, Resurrection - His Image

“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1, 5).

As mentioned earlier on, Matthew presents us with various admirable characters, people

who have not fallen into the trap of the lynch dynamic or mob pull, particularly women.

However, Joseph of Arimathea is another figure which manages to act outside the cycle -

188 BROWN E. RAYMOND, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 199-202. RENÉ GIRARD, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, translated with a foreword, by James G. Williams, United States 2001, 188.

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asking for the body of Jesus. Pilate accepts, the women witness the burial. Interestingly

the Gospel tells us that Pilate also accepts the request to put guards at the tomb. It seems

that Pilate remains very much of a divided man by recognizing the truth but wanting to

keep everyone happy at the same time, pleasing the various powers at play.

Matthew also tells us that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Another act of courage knowing that soldiers are present. An earthquake welcomes

them, whilst an angel descends from heaven, rolls the stone and sits on it. Matthew goes

into detail as telling us that his appearance was like lightning, that his cloths looked like

snow and of course the guards were afraid and became like dead, whereas he invited the

women not to be afraid. Yet the women did feel fear, but also great joy. It is interesting

to point out that it is those same people who stood by Jesus and were not driven by the

pull of the lynch-mod that experience the good news of the resurrection first. Those who

are given the good news first, are those whose desire remained united with the desire of

Jesus even when it all become dark, the women’s desire remained unshakable throughout

and seems that their desire and Jesus’ desire for each other unites them once more at the

dawn of the resurrection.

Jesus appears to the women and they worship him. He asks them to tell the apostles to go

to Galilee for it is there that he will meet them. The apostles have some more journeying

to do before encountering the resurrected Jesus. Once again Matthew tells us about the

conspiracy of the elders to buy the soldiers’ silence, a lie to cover up the truth but also to

cover up their murder which now has been revealed for what it is. The victim was the

Son of God189.

The Gospel of Matthew concludes with a final command where Jesus proclaims that all

authority of heaven and earth are given to him and commands the apostles to go and

make disciples in all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy

Spirit and to teach them to obey everything he commands. His last reassuring words are

189 James Alison argues that the resurrection of Jesus is God’s confirmation of Jesus’ life and death. An affirmation of his freedom and truth, whilst at the same time offers ‘a new and completely unexpected and radical new insight into who God is’. See JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 12.

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“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28, 18-20). The

founding murder has been revealed for what it is and resolved forever. Through this

same process the fullness of the image of God is also revealed and is found to be love,

forgiveness and inclusion. However, it is also a demand that makes its own demands.

2.14 Universality

In Acts 10 we find a huge leap forward in terms of Christianity and the early Church. As

with Claudia, God communicates with Gentiles and some gentiles are more able to

respond to him. The pagan Roman is presented to us as someone who feared God, gave

alms and prayed constantly. He used to participate in synagogue prayers and accepted

the moral demands of Judaism. He has a vision (later on he has to defend his behaviour

before the Jerusalem Christians). The vision takes place whilst Peter is praying on the

roof and he also has a vision that reveals to him in a detailed way what is going to

occur190.

Acts tells us that the circumcised were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit was

poured out on these Gentiles; “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people

who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have?” (Ac 10, 47).

The text clearly shows us that what is happening is uniquely God’s will. Of course this is

very controversial because it also implies a break from Jewish practice - no more kosher

food. Jesus’ saying that no new wine can be put into old wineskins becomes strikingly

apparent in this text191. Peter rejects by word and deed that to be a Jew has primacy over

faith in Christ. A learning process that took time and much struggle in the early Church.

However, Peter was foremost in displaying openness towards this new reality, a major

step during the beginning of the Church of the Gentiles as the beginning of the church of

the renewed Israel is happening at the same time192.

190 BROWN E. RAYMOND, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York 1997, 299-303. 191 Ibid. 192 Ibid.

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The Jesus story and the fullness of revelation in the paschal mystery have a universal

quality about them that need to be shared. The founding murder implicates all of

humanity within it. Violence, scapegoat mechanisms, victimization and problematic

desires that bring about but ‘resolve’ violence have a universal quality about them as

René Girard points out193. Hence, the resolution of this basic universal problematic

dynamic within human relationships and societies cannot be given only to one group of

people belonging to one privileged religion. Desire is universal hence the good news

about its resolution is for all of humanity across time194. Following the paschal mystery

the new outpouring of the Spirit cannot be contained as Acts 10 testifies. The liberating

act of Jesus is for all of humanity. The story of Israel has reached its fullness and

fulfillment in Jesus Christ, for all nations. Now, they too can stop building civilizations

through murder, resolving violence through victimization and building unity by

excluding or turning others into scapegoats. What is revealed is essentially human,

essentially divine, essentially universal and Jesus Christ has done something in the

history of humankind that is truly Good News – a Good News that needs to be told and

re-told - shared with all people since we are all trapped in that same original murderous

sinfulness195. It is in this paschal mystery of Jesus Christ that something of the fullness

and truth about the image of God can be glimpsed.

2. 15 Conclusion

In this Chapter I have attempted to read the text and allow it to speak. When reading

texts I focused on the concepts of desire, violence and idolatry keeping in mind René

Girard’s anthropology, Alison’s theology and Carmelite Spirituality. Interestingly we

find that in the Old Testament idolatry does revolve mainly around images or objects but

is also a matter of desire. If the heart abandons its God grave consequences follow. The

193 RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred,translated by Patrick Gregory, London 2005, 1-178 194 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 224-280. 195 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 57-76.

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Old Testament, particularly in the story of Elijah, also point out at the notion that there is

a subtle form of idolatry which even the person who worships the true living God can be

trapped in. Of course spiritual themes such as journey, night, cave, desire and mystical

transformation, picked up by the Carmelite tradition, strongly emerge in Elijah’s story.

The notion of subtle idolatry is further expanded within the New Testament. In reading

these texts I have attempted to remain faithful to what the text itself says as much as

possible, to help me find points of concordance or possible dissonance when bringing

them into dialogue with Alison’s and John of the Cross’ theology in Chapter Four.

Having said that texts selected are key texts within Girard’s anthropology, Alison’s

theology and Carmelite Spirituality. In fact, one of the main topics that this chapter

discusses is the Gospel dynamics and patterns which inspired René Girard in his own

writings. On the one hand as mentioned before I tried to read the texts allowing them to

speak. However, being very influenced by Girard’s and Alison’s perspective this bias

strongly emerges within this Chapter. .

As Roman Catholic tradition states, Scripture in revealing the word of God also offers an

anthropology of the human person. One could also argue that it also offers an

anthropology of desire. If disorder is present in one’s own heart, the human being is

exposed to envy and hate which not only lead him away from God but also towards

betraying and murdering his brother and sister. All division is the result of idolatry.

Anything and anyone can become an idol within the heart of the human person. Only

true worship of the living Trinity brings about life, healing and re-ordering of desires.

Actually, God liberates us from those violent desires that the ‘world and flesh’ bring

about. He also liberates us of any violent zeal or violent projections we may have about

him as well. Such process liberates desire from its own corruption. Desire itself is

created by God but needs to follow God’s own desire – that yearning to live with

humanity in the temple-garden of Eden were humanity has learned to love one another as

brothers and sisters.

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“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those

who love the world; for all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the

eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world

and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever”

(1 John 2, 15-17).

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5, 21).

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Chapter 3: Idolatry and the True Image of God as found in John of the Cross

3.1 Introduction – John the Poet

“Holy Spirit, giving life to all life, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them

clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds, You are our true life, luminous,

wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep” Hildegarde of Bingen196.

In this chapter I will discuss John of the Cross’ The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The

Dark Night. When writing about John of the Cross I personally feel that it is important to

highlight the beauty of his poetry, mostly expressing mystical experiences through poetic

language. Peter Slattery says that ‘The key to understanding St. John’s contribution to

Carmelite spirituality is to see him as a sublime poet’197. Slattery describes John’s poetry

as having a dream like quality and like metaphysical fire198. Edith Stein describes John

of the Cross as “an energetic man, within him the soul of an artist, a love of beauty, of

nature, music, colour, and poetry”.199 Eulogio Pacho OCD emphasis the importance to

read John of the Cross within all his dynamic personality and active life. He describes

him as author, poet, theologian, teacher, spiritual director, founder and reformer. Pacho

tells us that it is important to have a harmonious and undivided understanding of John of

the Cross, rather than studying and separating one aspect of his personality-life. It is

within such reading that one finds the gate to his essential message200.

196 Prayers for Everyday; 50 Inspirational prayers from around the world, project editor Emma Beare, Bounty Books, London 2007. 197 PETER SLATTERY, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality, New York 1991, 72. 198 Ibid, 73. 199 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, xxiii. 200 EULOGIO PACHO, OCD, Giovanni della Croce, santo e dottore della Chiesa (1541-1591) – L’Opera e il Messaggio, in Dizionario Carmelitano, diretto da EmanueleBoaga, O.Carn - Luigi Borriello, O.C.D., Roma 2008, 426.

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However, for the purpose of this chapter I will be focusing on John of the Cross’

commentaries rather than his biography or poetry. And yet, poetic language is intriguing

in John of the Cross - the way he describes the ‘Night Experience’ which for myself, is

primarily a human experience as expressed in other forms of art such as poetry, literature,

music and the Gospel itself. Edith Stein equals the night experience to the cross and says

“then is the cross the symbol (Sinnbild) of all that is difficult and oppressive and so

against human nature that taking it upon oneself is like a journey to death. And the

disciple of Jesus is to take up this burden daily.”201

For John of the Cross night is also a space where one encounters God202, an experience

that can present us with the delicate sentiments of the nativity scene whilst at the same

time with danger, trials and tribulations. It can be an experience of healing but also of

raging storms. It is about alert watchful waiting and transformations. It is after all a time

for intimacy and loving203.

Often the harder aspects of John of the Cross writings are emphasized but they are also

real and present. After all John of the Cross is also reflecting upon human experiences of

pain, suffering and detachments be they voluntary or non-voluntary, willing or unwilling.

Edith Stein argues that “those who suffer unjustly are bearing the cross even though they

may not be aware of it”.204

And yet, the ‘Night’ of John of the Cross brings about joy and gladness. It is a night fired

up with love, grace, longing, beauty and a refreshing breeze. Night and darkness for John

of the Cross are spaces which offer security and stillness. Like a veil it protects lovers. It

offers a secure space for this loving encounter to happen, to enfold and consummate.

Darkness protects this encounter. In this night, something is going on and it needs to

happen away from the light of day, from staring eyes. His poem clearly elucidates this.

201 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 17. 202 Peter Slattery reflects about the freedom of the poet and the challenges John presents through his poetry and commentaries. See PETER SLATTERY, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality, New York 1991, 74-75. 203 JOHN WELCH, The Carmelite Way. An Ancient Path for Today’s Pilgrim, New York 1996, 72-75. 204 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, xiv.

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John of the Cross finds in this darkness a more secure and guiding light than that of day.

It seems to me that this echoes with the Gospel’s star which guides the three wise men to

Bethlehem, to the infant Jesus. Night with its own lights opens up a way for John of the

Cross to reach his Jesus Christ.

For John of the Cross night is a place of beauty, the space where the lover meets the

beloved. It is the space of encounter, intimacy, growth, union and tender loving. It is the

place where transformation can happen safely. In this night he experiences the climax of

love which gently wounds him and it is this wound that sends John of the Cross out on a

‘new’ journey. John of the Cross learns to let go, to give himself entirely to Christ. In

this love in Christ John of the Cross is ‘lost’ – it seems to me that here the ‘todo y

nada’205 reach their fullness206. Edith Stein tells us that this transformation in love

becomes the person’s habitus, making it possible for the soul to possess eternal happiness

and eternal life.207 She explains John of the Cross’ ‘todo’ as the soul dissolving wholly

in God’s love - a love that wounds through its tender life.208 She explains that “the saint

wishes to place no obstacle to this wind of the Spirit when it blows through the soul”,209

reminding us of the aim of his writings.

The Ascent and Dark Night are a journey of losing oneself, of letting go to find a far

greater union - a deeper fullness. In this poem John of the Cross beautifully describes the

process of letting go of the finite to enter life in and with Christ – the infinite. The night

of John of the Cross is thick with Love which God has for all humanity; a love that

penetrates deep within the human spirit and brings a radical transformation. Such process

is a painful one, it is full of trials and tribulations. John describes these in detail in his

own commentaries about the poem. Change and transformation are part of this

encounter210.

205 IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 38. 206 Ibid, 19-27. 207 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 187. 208 Ibid, 188. 209 Ibid, 234. 210 PETER SLATTERY, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality, New York 1991, 77-79.

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The ‘Night’ journey of John of the Cross is not a journey into oblivion but a journey with

a clear destination. Amidst all the pain, suffering, fear and sense of loss, the destination

is one. The encounter with the living God brings about a dramatic yet delightful

transformation in the human person, making deep union possible. The poem itself is very

much marked with beauty, joy and gladness. His commentaries elaborate more on the

‘painful’ side of this journey: pain, suffering and misery, what John of the Cross calls the

process of purification211. Much of it is about letting go of idols – whatever these may be

and the reordering of desire, attachments and appetites. What I find remarkable in John

of the Cross is that he warns us not to panic during this process, to move on because the

blessings are yet to come and they are great212. Iain Matthew commenting on John of the

Cross tells us that God transforms in darkness and in this darkness, we encounter love

secure enough, allowing us to be vulnerable. Matthew states that in this darkness, God is

not absent but rather the way he is present that causes us difficulty. It is more about

bearing this suffering creatively rather than God imposing it upon us, after all pain and

suffering are facts of earthly life213. Suffering is a mystery but for John of the Cross it

also becomes a creative space for growth.

The commentaries of John of the Cross are very much his own reflection after having

gone through the experience merged with doctrinal reflections214. John of the Cross uses

a number of metaphors to describe this purgation such as the mother who nurses, carries

and caresses but who then weans the child and helps the child to grow, to put away the

childhood ways215. He also uses other images such as that of wood in fire and its

transformation or the window pane allegory216. In his poem and commentary, John of the

Cross is describing and teaching on how to allow God carry on his work in our soul,

about communion, the emptying of oneself to receive in full. He teaches us about the

211 RUTH BURROWS OCD, Essence of Prayer, London 2006, 99-105. 212 IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, xi-xiii. 213 Ibid, 72-85. 214 The Dark Night, The Doctrine, 354. 215 Ibid, 355. 216 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 5, 4-5; 7. The Dark Night, 2. 10, 6-7. Ibid, 2. 12, 3

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implications of being in an intimate loving relationship with God. He describes the

process of purification in terms of privation, darkness, aridity, emptiness, affliction and

torment. Throughout his commentary, John of the Cross often refers to the intellect,

memory and will, which he links to faith, hope and charity. He also speaks of their

purification217.

John of the Cross speaks of ‘Night’ as something obscure, which purifies and illumines

but in which the person feels powerless, bound, and unable to escape. It is here that we

learn to accept and surrender to what God is doing in our soul. John of the Cross

describes this moment as a difficult one for the soul and not knowing what is happening

is even more painful. John of the Cross realizes that understanding this process is of help

to souls, also to know that there is an end to all of this.

The aria ‘Vissi d’Arte’ from the opera Tosca by Puccini218 seems to reflect much of what

John of the Cross is writing about. Tosca’s cry reminds me much of John’s Ascent. It is

a life experience that people of faith encounter, of deep anguish and confusion. For

people of prayer these moments can be terrible and deeply disturbing. John of the Cross

points out at one essential element; it is not enough to be prayerful in one’s own religious

life, there is much to do, much to lose and to let go of. Moreover there is much to be

done from God’s side, to strip us of our own idolatry and attachments which are not

according to his desire219. John of the Cross highlights our possessive and violent ways

of relating to ourselves, others and God himself, of our problematic attachments to

objects, even religious items and spiritual experiences themselves. John of the Cross

points out how in the dark night we are stripped of these possessive attachments, a very

disconcerting experience but which helps us find our desire and attachments anew, full of

life.

217 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 6, 1-8. IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 19-27. 218 See ANGELA GHEORGHIU - Vissi d'arte - Tosca - Puccini in YouTube Broadcast Yourself (on-line) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIExoUb8jk. 219 IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 39-45.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIExoUb8jk

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John of the Cross is talking about climbing the mount in the shortest time possible. He

knows it is a narrow path and feels sad for those who failed. He knows that God is the

goal of every human being but he is also aware how humans are stuck in states of

disorder. His way is the way for freedom for union with God220. Edith Stein tells us that

“He takes the soul by the hand where most halt, a new path opens up through the

impenetrable darkness.” 221

3.2 Darkness

“…to hope against all hope and never doubt His goodness…”

Elizabeth of the Trinity222

Darkness is a word John of the Cross uses often to describe this spiritual process. For

him the night gets darker and darker. During this period John of the Cross explains how

the person feels lost, filled with darkness, trials, afflictions and temptations. It is a time

of melancholia and depression. One’s temperament and hidden wickedness are revealed

and the person believes that God has forsaken him or her. The risk is to fall back and

John of the Cross reassures us that God himself is the author of this period. It is in actual

fact a period of enlightenment but the suffering is worse than death. One needs only

endure because there is no remedy. It is important to move according to the spirit

because during this time even structured prayer may not be helpful223. Peter Slattery tells

us that “The mystical journey up the side of the mountain of Carmel in the darkness of

night is a liberation because it is an effective means of attaining, insofar as it is possible

in this life, to the perfection of one’s being in a union of love centered in Christ between

the human person and God.”224 Rumi’s words echo much of what John of the Cross is

220 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Prologue, 1-9. 221 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington, 2003, 37. 222 [ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY], I Have Found God. The Complete Works. Letters from Carmel, 2 vols., translated by Anne Englund Nash, Washington 1997, L 262. 223 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Prologue, 1-9. 224 PETER SLATTERY, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality, New York 1991, 77.

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describing “What sort of person says that he or she wants to be polished and pure, then

complains about being handled roughly?”225

In fact the soul that sets on this journey is attracted by God and follows him out of love

on this journey in darkness. In the Ascent John of the Cross explains the phase of

purgation with regards to sensible appetites, external things of the world, delights of the

flesh and gratification of the will. John of the Cross here is mainly talking about a

possessive attachment of the heart to the world. For him we need to live in faith alone.

He describes the night of the senses like the natural night having three parts226.

John of the Cross explains that for God all attachment to creatures is darkness and

therefore there cannot be union between light and darkness. The light of divine union can

only be established in the soul after all affections are eradicated227.

John of the Cross calls this process as night because there is much mortification of

appetites, but this is in actual fact light. The real darkness is when we let appetites rule

leading us to loss of grace, mortal sin and thus total blindness. Whereas virtue and

mortification bring peace, comfort, light, purity and strength228. Edith Stein points out

that entering the night is equivalent to carrying the cross.229 She also mentions that the

“cross and night are the way to heavenly light: that is the joyful message of the cross”.230

John of the Cross also speaks of a midnight phase where it gets darker. During this time

the rational, superior part of the human person is purified. The process is more interior,

touching the innermost being. It is the darkest period of the night which brings light.

John of the Cross warns us that we must be empty also of supernatural communication231.

225 Rumi, The book of Love, Poems of Ecstacy and Longing – Harsh Evidence, translations and commentary by Coleman Barks, United States of America 2003, 133. 226 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 2, 1-5. 227 Ibid, 1. 4, 1-4. 228 Ibid, 1. 6, 3-6. 229 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, xxvii. 230 Ibid, 31. 231 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 2, 2.

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John of the Cross explains how faith causes darkness and a void of understanding in the

intellect, hope begets an emptiness of possessions in the memory whilst charity produces

the nakedness and emptiness of affection and joy in all that is not God. He clarifies how

faith brings certitude but not clarity, it brings darkness. Hope also brings darkness with

regarding to all earthly and heavenly objects. Charity brings about the void to love God

above everything. These three virtues are acquired through darkness. John of the Cross

stresses that the gate is very narrow, the path steep and only a few desire this total

nakedness and emptiness of spirit. Denial of self in worldly matters is not enough he

argues. Denial in the spiritual domain is required too. It is an extreme form of

abandonment. For John of the Cross, Christ on the cross is the most marvelous work

surpassing all the works and deeds and miracles he ever performed on earth or in heaven

because it brought reconciliation and union232.

John of the Cross also describes God’s hiding place as darkness and dark water. He

explains how this obscurity is only shattered at the end of this mortal life when the glory

and light of the divinity will at once appear. Stein explains how “God remains hidden

from us on earth, even in the bliss of union”.233 John of the Cross warns against

supernatural communications especially external ones to avoid relying on them or

accepting them. These could lead to much error, presumption, vanity in the soul if

importance is attached to these communications. He tells us these can lead one astray

from faith. He advices the soul to keep on walking in humility and pure faith. John of

the Cross also warns us about being attached to spiritual methods and exercises because

even these at some point can become a hindrance234. Stein points out how John’s own

supernatural communications “were followed, in his life, by a storm of persecution and

suffering”.235

232 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 7, 5-13. 233 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 46. 234 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2, 9; 10; 11. 235 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 24.

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For John of the Cross, to remain in the darkness of faith is to be free and live in the

abundance of the spirit. One’s desire maybe fulfilled but in a different manner. He

repeatedly warns his followers to flee prudently from supernatural things. Sometimes

God also grants to humans what is not the best but because humans do not know how to

journey in any other way, for example like Israel requesting God a king even though this

was not his desire236.

In the Dark Night of the Soul John of the Cross explains how the Bridegroom leads the

way amidst all this darkness. Jesus himself takes us to this place of growth which is also

a difficult and painful one. One needs to keep in mind that John of the Cross is writing

for those who are already on their spiritual journey and in some way actively engaged in

their spiritual growth. In the Dark Night he speaks of various imperfections such as

pride, vanity of talking about spiritual things, presumption, vices, wanting praise and to

instruct. He speaks of those who are envious and impatient about their own growth and

that of others, of those who get angry at the imperfections of others and themselves. John

of the Cross also speaks of spiritual avarice, possessiveness and disordered attachments,

even to spiritual things. He also discusses spiritual lust and inordinate pleasures in prayer

and mortifications237.

For John of the Cross, night brings all loves in order but he also describes the night of the

spirit as bitter and terrible, worst than the night of the senses. He goes on to say that the

second night is horrible and frightful. He tells us that the person going through this night

experiences it as if everything is functioning in reverse. However, all this makes

communion with God possible. As mentioned previously, Stein compares the night to

the Cross and describes this process “like a foretaste of death”238 were “a person must die

to sin”239. Rumi, in his poem Imadu’ L-Mulk says “Pitchblack night in his presence is

worth a hundred festival days without him”.240

236 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 21, 1-4. 237 The Dark Night, 1. 238 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 40. 239 Ibid, 49. 240 Rumi, The book of Love, Poems of Ecstacy and Longing – Imadu’ L-Mulk, translations and commentary by Coleman Barks, United States of America 2003 128.

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John of the Cross gives us signs to understand if the person is going through a dark night

or not. The first sign is that the person finds no satisfaction in either God or creatures.

The soul does not find delight in anything. The second sign is that the memory turns

towards God painfully, believing that it is not serving God or, not serving him as he

deserves to be served. However, in reality the spirit is here ready and strong.

Contemplation is here dark and dry to the senses yet interior nourishment is happening.

The third sign is that this experience is not the result of bad humour, which could turn to

previous exercises with satisfaction. John of the Cross points out that this process is not

continuous and to take care when looking out for these signs241.

John of the Cross highlights the fact that the person in this state feels abandoned by God

and believes that there will be no more blessings for him or her. He warns us of the

danger of a person ‘turning back’ at this state. He encourages us to persevere patiently,

not to be afflicted and to remain in prayer242. Edith Stein highlights the need for

surrender, patience, perseverance, strength and courage to get through this journey.243

John of the Cross explains how the first night only prepares us for the eventual second

night, described as a constricted road. The soul is purposefully placed here for divine

union. It is a place where proficient souls get purified of their imperfections. He warns

to be very careful here of any false prophecies or visions induced by the devil. In this

night, we are called to walk a dark path of pure faith and have to be careful and watch out

for authentic spirituality. He teaches us that imperfections of the senses have their roots

in the spirit and therefore the purification continues here, at a deeper level.

The soul is here only conscious of its own bitterness and sad experiences. It finds itself

in a strange and unfamiliar place and yet she will receive divine knowledge in this place.

In this darkness afflicted with doubts and fears the love of God inflames, stimulates and

stirs within. In all this, the soul experiences companionship and interior strength. This

241 The Dark Night, 1. 9, 1-9. 242 The Dark Night, 1. 9, 1-9. 243 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 53-54.

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contemplation infuses love and wisdom. Here the soul forcefully and anxiously goes out

in search for her Bridegroom244. Edith Stein warns us that on this journey the soul “can

easily go astray” since “in this life we cannot grasp what God is”.245

3.3 Nakedness

Nakedness is a dominant theme in John of the Cross. He often mentions it and he

emphasizes the importance of unburdening oneself of both earthly things and spiritual

obstacles. He advices complete nakedness to keep one’s spirit free for divine union246.

Nakedness implies total emptying of all appetites both natural and supernatural. The soul

needs to learn to be satisfied with God alone rather than yearning for other aspirations,

desires and affections. For John of the Cross nothing equals God. He explains that we

cannot desire two pleasures at the same time. Till appetites are eliminated union is not

reached even though virtue is practiced. For John of the Cross perfect virtue is to keep

the soul empty, naked and purified of all appetites247.

John of the Cross goes into details and explains how imperfections such as being

talkative, attachments to one’s own cell or clothing, the way food is prepared or having a

desire to conquer, are also hindrances248. He explains that appetites defile and bring

disorder to the soul. He compares appetites to the firing of the soul for creatures. Like

fire appetites stain and blacken the soul. Repentance and weeping is a way to deal with

un-mortified appetites because these kill one’s own relationship with God. John of the

Cross tells us that we have to extinguish them or else they will extinguish our relationship

with God. John of the Cross speaks of five kinds of harm that appetites can bring about

244 The Dark Night, 1. 14, 4; 2. 5, 2; 245 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 59. 246 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 2, 3. 247 Ibid, 1. 5, 2-8. 248 Ibid, 1. 11, 4.

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making the soul wearisome and tired, tormented and afflicted, blind and dark, defiled and

stained, weak and tepid.249

Interestingly John of the Cross differentiates between appetites pointing out that not all

appetites are the same. He claims that the natural ones are less detrimental. He also says

that it is impossible to mortify them totally but one can be free from them in the rational

part.250

For John of the Cross staying in nothingness is important as nothingness is not opposite

to God. He speaks of our own tendency to actually resist God and his grace. He

reassures his readers that our attachment to God itself who loves us will help us to

naturally detach from all that hinders union with Him251. Edith Stein describes this

process in this way “that he both make himself and allow himself to be made into an

image of the one who carries the cross and is crucified.”252

Going back to John’s work, he shows us that he has a great insight into human

psychology. He points out that people often have the strength to detach from bigger

things and yet find it hard to detach from trivial ones. Having said that, he insists that

even these trivial attachments can force the soul to turn back. Not to go forward is to turn

back, not to gain ground is to lose. John of the Cross tells us that we need to persevere in

solitude for God253.

John of the Cross also warns about excessive attachments to painted images, sculptures or

the rosary beads themselves. He also describes these as attachments and appetites. He

explains how the only advantage from them is to raise a person from luke-warmness. But

if one rejoices more in the object represented than the object itself one is moving astray.

His words are direct and almost harsh. He speaks of those who canonize their vanities

through such practices. He also speaks of doll-dressing of statues, of idols upon which 249 Ibid, 1. 6, 1-6; 1. 10, 3. 250 Ibid, 1. 11, 2. 251 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 6, 4. 252 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 12. 253 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 11, 4-5.

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people centre their joy and delight their senses. John of the Cross states that there is little

need for many images or styles of rosary beads. Prayer is not dependent on such matters.

God only looks at the faith and purity of the prayerful heart. He tells us that spiritual or

religious practices in themselves lead nowhere. What matters is one’s own internal

disposition. Another example he gives is that of pilgrimages which serve as self-serving

and pleasing methods rather than helping one to focus on the will of God, John of the

Cross tells us that such practices create more distraction254. He states ‘how many

festivals, my God do the children of this earth celebrate in your honour in which the devil

has a greater role than you.255’

John of the Cross stresses that we only advance through unknowing. Anything grasped

by the intellect or heart can only serve as an obstacle to union. For John of the Cross

spiritual wisdom is incomprehensible to the senses, as are the works of God which at the

same time are well ordered, reform and refine the spirit. On the other hand the way of the

flesh afford neither profit nor delight. Thus, the soul needs to learn to put away childish

things behind. We are to also learn not to fix on locutions, words, visions, fragrances nor

interior imaginative visions. All these must be renounced even if they are from God as

they will bring harm if we are very credulous of them and count them as authentic. They

can lead the soul astray. Thus, we only move forward by unknowing256.

John of the Cross also stresses the importance of moving grounded in humility and faith

rather than attached to such visions. One needs to walk wholly on the road of nakedness.

If one gives esteem to such visions one is at risk of gross delusions as these even if

coming from God do not always turn out to be what they seem to be the meaning of their

words. Our manner of understanding such words and the variables on which they are

dependent are not certain nor free from errors. Thus these can be fulfilled in a different

way or not fulfilled at all. Variables can change or fail. John of the Cross warns us that

God’s language is another one, according to the spirit that is different from what we

understand. Sometimes it seems that God is deceiving us because everything turns out

254 Ibid, 3. 15, 2; 3. 35; 3. 36; 3, 37; 3. 38; 3. 39. 255 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3. 38, 3. 256 Ibid, 2. 17, 3-4; 2. 19, 9; 2. 19, 9; 2. 21, 11; 2. 28, 1; 2. 28, 4-5.

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contrary to our expectations. Another element is that he does not liberate us from the

hands of the temporally powerful and persecution is not avoided as the life of Jesus

himself shows us257. Edith Steins mentions that “the destruction of the natural way of

understanding is profound, frightful, and extremely painful.”258

Though John of the Cross acknowledges spiritual gifts such as prophecy, discernment,

recognition of spirits or knowledge, he stresses that one should always renounce them.

John of the Cross is very aware of the traps a soul can find itself into if it is not humble

and distrustful. He warns us that one can end up believing a thousand lies. The only

desire that is safe for John of the Cross is to journey to God by unknowing259.

It is very interesting to note that he emphasizes that holy people themselves, those who

were with Jesus himself were mistaken. For instance he gives the example of St. James

and St. John who asked Jesus to send fire over the Samaritans who refused them lodging.

Jesus reproved them. John of the Cross warns us that God’s graces can also be used in a

wicked and perverse way260. It is more important to believe in God than in his signs and

miracles.

John of the Cross very clearly explains how on this journey one may feel that everything

is being pulled down rather than built up. The memory has no form or image in this

union and very little can help the soul at this stage. Spiritual exercises themselves are not

helpful. Yet there is greater perfection in action because God alone moves these souls

towards works that are in harmony with his will. Stein highlights that in fact “all

confusion and disturbance in the soul is caused by the contents of the memory”261.

257 Ibid. 258 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 129. 259 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 19, 5; 2. 20, 11; 2. 26, 17. 260 Ibid, 2. 22, 14; 3. 31, 2. 261 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 84.

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John of the Cross says that in all circumstances we ought to rejoice rather than be

disturbed, greater blessings are yet to come. John of the Cross also explains the kind of

harm souls can fall into if we possess ideas or forms or any other supernatural

communications. John of the Cross suggests that we need to renounce all possession of

the memory, even if they are coming from God himself. Union with God is to be reached

in hope, nakedness and forgetfulness262.

John of the Cross tells us that even moral goods and virtues themselves can be self-

serving and not practiced according to the heart of God. These can be practiced without

having an interior love towards others - for instance a person who is practising virtue but

gets angry at the success of others. Morally good and virtuous people can adore

themselves more than God himself. John of the Cross states that a wise person is

concerned about the substance and benefit of a work rather than the delight and

satisfaction it yields. John of the Cross tells us to be poor in spirit, meek, humble,

prudent, not possessive and lustful. He tells us that we can be gluttonous and envious for

instance in spiritual matters as well. The soul needs to learn to serve God in true charity.

What matters is doing God’s will263.

In his book the Dark Night of the Soul John of the Cross elaborates further on these vices

of the spirit. He warns us against anger and setting ourselves as Lord of Virtues, of un-

humble patience. He also talks about spiritual gluttony – that of seeking one’s own

pleasure in spiritual matters thus threading the path of disobedience for the sake of one’s

own satisfaction. He also mentions envy and sloth. Once again, he warns us against

seeking to satisfy one’s own will and to be careful of experiencing a strong aversion to

adapting to God’s will264.

262 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3. 9, 5. 263 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3. 9; 3. 20; 3. 22; 3. 26; 3. 29, 9; 3. 29, 2-5. LUIS JORGE GONZALEZ, Terapia Spirituale, Guarigione umana e spirituale delle malattie dell’anima, Citta del Vaticano, Roma 2000, 45-54, 148-167, 208-252. 264 The Dark Night, 1. 2; 1. 3; 1. 4; 1. 5; 1. 6; 1. 7.

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John of the Cross tells us that what is required of our soul is to be free, to maintain a

loving and peaceful attentiveness to God, to live without concern, effort or desire to taste

or feel him. What is at first a thirst that kills, a dryness, void and aridity is eventually

transformed into a secret and peaceful place of a loving inflow of God. The night

relieves us from imperfections and vices. It helps us acquire many virtues. The soul

learns to journey towards God in pure faith. It is a night that illuminates and here souls

soften and transform into charitable and meek souls. God communicates sweetly to the

soul in this night. Thus, liberation from the devil, the world and flesh happens. John of

the Cross describes this night as a Narrow Gate265, Edith Steins calls it “the way of

faith”.266

3.4 Idolatry

In many instances John of the Cross equals appetites, affections and desires to forms of

idolatry. For him the consequences of these and of idolatry are parallel and the same.

For instance, concupiscence overwhelms the intellect and thus the person cannot see

light. Hence the necessity to deny appetites. John of the Cross repeats himself on these

points and highlights the fact that we need to ever be watchful. He gives an example

from Solomon’s life who was a perfect man but who sank in blindness and idolatry due to

his uncontrolled appetites. John of the Cross warns not to rush after desires but to deny

them, because they blind us, darken our intellect and extinguish the light of God’s

wisdom267.

Very clearly he explains that during this night process we need to destroy all strange

gods, to purify ourselves, to change garment and to have pure love. For him this is praise

and reverence towards God. He explains the way in the following manner; to cast out

strange gods, alien affections and attachments, to deny these appetites, repent of them and

be purified of any residue through the dark night of the sense, finally to change garments. 265 Ibid, 1. 11, 4. 266 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 57. 267 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 8, 5.

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It brings about a new understanding of God in God. Old ideas and images are cast aside

and the soul is stripped of old cravings and satisfactions268.

John of the Cross stresses that one’s love for God must never fail or be mixed with alien

loves because God allows nothing else to dwell together with him. The only appetite

God permits is the desire for the perfect fulfillment of his law and the carrying of the

cross of Christ. Like this we become the true arks who bear the real manna, a worthy

dwelling for his Majesty269.

As mentioned earlier on, for John of the Cross some ‘religious’ practices themselves are

forms of idolatry, those he describes as doll-dressing of statues, idols upon which people

centre their joy and delight their senses270. John Welch tell us that John is much about

freedom, prayer and liberation from any false claims, notions or other forms of idolatry.

Prayer is about restoring our soul to health271.

3.5 Desire & Imitation

Desire and imitation do not directly feature in John’s commentaries. Having said that

they are very much present in his advices and councils. Sometimes he also speaks

directly of them. For John of the Cross there are primarily two acceptable desires, other

desires are problematic. The first desire acceptable for him is to enter into complete

nakedness, emptiness and poverty, to mortify concupiscence of the flesh, eyes, and pride

of life. Nothingness is for John of the Cross the possibility for everything272. As

previously mentioned, for John of the Cross the only desire that is safe, is to journey to

268 Ibid, 1. 5, 6-7. 269 Ibid, 1. 5, 8. 270 Ibid, 3. 35, 4-8; 3. 43, 2-3; 3. 44, 5. 271 JOHN WELCH, The Carmelite Way. An Ancient Path for Today’s Pilgrim, United States of America 1996, 39-48. 272 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 5, 8; 1. 13, 4-13.

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God by unknowing273. The other desire permitted by God is the desire for the perfect

fulfillment of his law and the carrying of the cross of Christ274.

In John of the Cross we also find references to imitation. He speaks of it in terms of how

it can be problematic but also in terms of learning - positive imitation. John of the Cross

explains how love effects a likeness between the lover and the loved, how the stronger

the attachment the closer the likeness to the creature. This kind of love brings about

greater equality. However, John of the Cross further explains how love not only equals

but subjects the lover to the loved creature. The lover becomes lower than the loved

object and therefore such a soul is incapable of pure union and transformation in God.

For John of the Cross this attachment is an impediment, depriving the soul of

transformation. He further explains that a person captivated by grace and elegance of

creatures is coarse and crude in God’s sight275.

As mentioned earlier John of the Cross speaks of desires that can lead us into problematic

situations but he encourages one habitual desire: to imitate Christ in all deeds, to bring

our life into conformity with his, to desire to study his life in order to know how to

imitate him in all events. Successful imitation is to live as he lived: renouncing and

remaining empty of sensory satisfaction, accepting no gratification or desire other than

the fulfillment of his Father’s will, his meat and food276. With regards to desire Edith

Stein says “God has created human souls for himself. He desires to unite them to himself

and to give them the immeasurable fullness and incomprehensible bliss of his own divine

life, already in this life. That is the goal…”.277

273 Ibid, 2. 26, 18. 274 Ibid, 1. 5, 8. 275 Ibid, 1. 4. 276 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 13, 3-4. 277 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 37.

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3.6 Non-Violence

John of the Cross does not write about non-violence as such. He does not use such term.

However, his own life, which is lived in imitation of Jesus’ own life speaks out loud

about this way. John of the Cross was severely persecuted in his own life but he remains

non-violent, forgiving and loving towards those who oppressed him. Not only does he

remain loving towards those who hated him but encourages others to love those who are

persecuting him. This is particularly captured in his letters, especially those he wrote to

Madre Maria de la Encarnacion. In letter 25 John emphasizes that this life has worth

only if we imitate Jesus Christ. He reassures Madre Maria that he is well, that all is for

our own good and asks her not to worry about him278. In letter 26 he write his famous

phrase ‘Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love,

and you will draw out love…’279. John’s non-violence is not only about non-violent

resistance but an opportunity to plant the seeds of love. John of the Cross knows that

love can bring about the transformation of those same persons who hate and persecute us.

His non-violence is in imitation of Jesus’ own relationship with those who oppressed,

persecuted and killed him. Jesus ends his life calling those who are putting him to death

to life-giving-conversion, John of the Cross follows him here as well.

3.7 Prudence

Following non-violence, I wanted to point out prudence because it is seems like a key

principle in John of the Cross work. It is frequently mentioned in his advice on dealing

especially with supernatural inspirations. Cleverly John of the Cross points out that joy,

afflictions, hope and sorrow themselves can originate either from the spirit of perfection

or imperfection. He warns us to be careful and prudent. He also tells us not to take

sensations or manifestations too seriously. John of the Cross also warns us that this path

278 Letters, 25. 279 Ibid, 26.

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is not for those who wish to pursue God along sweet and satisfying ways280. He suggests

prudence in all other experiences and dealings.

3.8 Growth

Growth is another underlying principle in John’s Ascent and Dark Night. Particularly in

the Ascent, he speaks of the dynamic of spiritual growth. He describes the process of

how virtue grows by purification and by way of this same purification growth happens281.

John of the Cross’ instructions are for us to become holy, able to bring about life and to

create the conditions for life and growth. His mysticism is also about being fully in touch

with one’s own humanity and that of others.

Wilfred McGreal in his book ‘At the Fountain of Elijah’ says that John of the Cross

points towards growing in a loving trust, being open to experiencing unconditional love,

and creating the space to gain confidence in achieving full loving relationships282.

3.9 Images

John of the Cross uses a number of images to describe various processes and spiritual

dynamics. Amongst them he mentions that of little children restless and hard to please,

always whining and never satisfied283. He describes the wickedness of the heart as a

stormy sea284. Another image he uses in the Ascent is that of the moth who desires light

280 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Prologue, 7-9. 281 Ibid, 1. 13, 5; 3. 20; 3. 23. 282 WILFRID MCGREAL, At the Fountain of Elijah. The Carmelite Tradition, NewYork 1999, 53-70. 283 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, 1. 6, 6. 284 Ibid.

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yet flies directly into the fire to describe the harm that appetites can bring about285. A

famous image of his is that of a bird tied with a thread who nonetheless is still bound286.

In the Dark Night John of the Cross uses other images such as that of the she-bear or

lioness that goes out to search for her cubs. In that same way the soul goes out in this

night to search for her beloved. In this night all is still and youth is renewed287. John of

the Cross also uses the imagery of dark water as an image for the tabernacle of God288.

Other images are those of the mother who nurses, carries and caresses but weans her

child to grow and learn to put away childhood ways. He also uses the wood and fire

example to describe the process of purification needed for union. The window pane and

dust particles is another example289 to describe the dynamics he is talking about. In the

second book of the Dark Night, John of the Cross uses two powerful and elaborate

images to explain his doctrine, that of the Ladder and Change of Garb.

3.9.1 The Ladder

Through this image John of the Cross explains how everything is ascent and descent at

this stage. Jesus is at the end of the Ladder which has ten steps. The steps are:

In the first step love makes the soul sick in an advantageous way. In the second step

there is an unceasing search for God. The soul is prompted for works with fervor and yet

feels such works are lowly for such a high Lord. This is the third stage. Love is at the

fourth stage experienced as a habitual yet un-wearisome suffering engendered on account

of the beloved. Here love imparts an impatient desire and longing for God, a desire for

union and yet the delay is tiresome. At the sixth stage love is invigorated, the soul runs

swiftly towards God. At the seventh the soul experiences ardent boldness. Love impels

the soul to lay hold of the beloved without letting him go at the eight stage; the soul is

285 Ibid, 1. 8, 3. 286 Ibid, 1. 11, 4. 287 The Dark Night 2. 13, 8 -11. 288 Ibid, 2. 16, 13. 289 Ibid, Introduction, The Doctrine, 355; 2. 8, 3; 2. 10, 6.

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here satisfied in union though not continuously. At the ninth love causes the soul to burn

ardently. The tenth stage is the final step and is no longer this life. The soul is here

totally assimilated in God and receives clear vision of him290. Edith Stein calls John’s

ladder “a science of love”.291

3.9.2 The Garb

The garb is another powerful image John of the Cross uses. It definitely echoes

Carmelite influences - as all of his other notions and principles such as space, growth,

spiritual union, penitence and the emphasis on the paschal mystery292. The Garb sounds

very much like the Carmelite’s devotion to Mary and the veil symbol293.

The garb expresses the love and aspiration of the soul for her beloved but also a form of

protection from rivals. John of the Cross speaks of three colours, white, green and red

which stand for the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity. Again he links these

to intellect, memory and will294.

At this stage communion with God takes place but in secret. The devil cannot enter this

space even though at times he tries to disturb the soul with violent communications and

spiritual horrors. In this place, God visits through his good angel or directly in total

concealment and darkness. This is sublime and delightful communication which brings

about peace and rest. The soul is returned to the original state of innocence, is purified,

strengthened, quieted, and thus receives permanent divine union - a divine espousal295.

290 The Dark Night 2. 19-20. 291 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 143. 292 WAAIJMAN KEES, The Mystical Space of Carmel. A Commentary on the Carmelite Rule, Leuven 1999, 1-53. 293 CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL, O.CARM., A Loving Presence: Mary in Carmel A Study of the Marian Heritage of the Order, Melbourne 2000. 294 The Dark Night 2. 21. 295 Ibid, 2. 22; 2. 23; 2. 24; 2. 25.

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3.10 God

“We will pray with him who has gone before us to the Abode of light and peace, where

God wipes every tear from the eyes of His elect…”

Elizabeth of Trinity296

God is of course central in all of John’s writing and for him turning away from God

equals havoc, torment, weariness and blindness. People can also be defiled, weakened

and deprived of the Lord’s spirit through appetites. He particularly speaks about

hindrance to union which is voluntary, willful and inordinate. For John of the Cross God

is a light that blinds but which brings about divine calm, peace, sublime knowledge and

infused love. God communicates himself with the human person giving loving

knowledge to the spirit. John of the Cross stresses that God is not restricted to images or

ideals but rather his presence and reason are dark – there is ‘nothing’ to hold on to in this

space. For John of the Cross God comes near those who search for truth, but the way to

advance on this journey is neither by understanding nor support of one’s own

experiences, even spiritual ones. Feelings and the imagination are not helpful because

God transcends all297.

John of the Cross differentiates the presence of God in the human person. From a

presence that sustains and dwells substantially in every soul - that always exists, to a

presence of union and transformation in God where there is likeness of love. He tells us

that God communicates with the soul through love and grace but also strips it from

natural contraries and dissimilarities. We are reborn in the Holy Spirit to become most

like God in purity. And yet we must also labor to divest and deprive ourselves for God of

all that is not him298. Edith Stein speaks of “how God can insert his powerful hand in the

destiny of souls and bring about a sanctifying rebirth under his action”299.

296 [ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY], I Have Found God. The Complete Works. Letters from Carmel, 2 vols., translated by Anne Englund Nash, Washington 1997, L 262. 297 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, 1. 2. 3; 2. 4. 298 Ibid, 2. 5, 3. 299 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, xv.

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John of the Cross stresses that God has no relation, no essential likeness to us creatures

nor any proportion of likeness, though all creatures do carry some likeness, trace or

relation to him. We can only relate to the true God by advancing through unknowing

rather than a desire to know, to remain in darkness rather than to see, whilst stay watchful

of errors and delusions300.

John of the Cross stresses that God’s wisdom has neither mode nor manner, it has no

limits nor does it pertain to distinct particular knowledge. We cannot see God through

comparisons, likeness or figure. He says that the pure naked essence of God meets the

pure naked essence of the soul; thus there should be no attachment to corporeal

visions301.

For John of the Cross what is important is to turn our eyes on Jesus completely because

he is our entire locution, response, vision, revelation, word spoken and answered,

manifested and revealed. He is our brother, companion, master, ransom and reward. We

should listen to him as there are no more truths. In him all is uncovered, all the fullness

of the divinity dwells bodily in him. However, John of the Cross warns us that it is

important to remain humble and not dare to deal with God independently nor completely

satisfied with human counsel302.

John of the Cross tells us that our strength should come from Church law because God’s

manifestation itself is transitory. He also gives clear guidelines on how to distinguish

between visions coming from God from visions which are diabolical303.

John of the Cross highlights the essential in life, that of being in service to God. What is

essential is to center one’s eyes on God, everything else is secondary, even a desire to

marry or have children should not be our primary desire but only if it is according to the

desire of God, John says. Only what is in harmony with God is of value. John of the

300 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel 2. 8, 3-4. 301 Ibid, 2. 17. 302 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel 2. 22, 5. 303 Ibid, 2. 22, 14.

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Cross warns about the dangers when we are moved by other desires apart from God, such

as joys, money and earthly things. For John of the Cross all these can lead to loss,

despair, misery, death and anxiety. He warns about not being attached to these things and

not to set our heart on them. He says that liberty is God’s principle attribute and it cannot

live with covetousness. Therefore, the true homage of God is liberty of spirit, clarity of

reason, rest, tranquility and peaceful confidence in God304. John of the Cross instructs us

about perfection reassuring us that there is no need to desire anything beyond one’s own

capacity305.

3.11 The Way

“Be, Lord Jesus, a bright flame before me,

A guiding star above me,

A smooth path below me,

A kindly shepherd behind me:

Today, tonight, and forever”.

St. Columba306

In John of the Cross we find his famous almost poetic summery of his way which echoes

Teresa’s own poem ‘For the Profession of Isabel De Los Angeles’307.

“Not to the easiest, but to the most difficult, not to the most delightful, but to

the most distasteful, not to the most gratifying, but to the less pleasant, not to

what means rest for you, but to hard work, not to the consoling, but to the un-

consoling, not to the most, but to the least, not to the highest and most

304 Ibid, 3. 17, 4; 3. 16; 3. 17; 3. 18; 3. 19; 3. 20. 305 Ibid, 2. 27, 6. 306Prayers for Everyday; 50 Inspirational prayers from around the world, project editor Emma Beare, Bounty Books, London 2007. 307 The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, The book of her foundations, minor works, poetry. Vol 3., Translated by Kieran Kavanough, OCDand Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, India 2006, 402-404.

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precious, but to the lowest and most despised, not to wanting something, but

to wanting nothing.”308

John’s way is the reverse of our own instinctual desires: to enjoy not, to know not, to

possess not, to receive all. Denying oneself is for John of the Cross to go from the all to

the all. God is our only “todo”. Only in light of this “todo” his council about total

nakedness makes sense. It is a poverty that brings about quietude and rest and not

misery. In this nothingness there are no pulls, oppression or anything that pushes the

person down and away from God. Its centre is humility. One’s own satisfaction is found

in Jesus’ love. Yet one needs courage and constancy to remain on this path309.

John of the Cross describes in detail this journey which includes a loving awareness of

God and his knowledge in peace, a drinking which comes without labour. It is also a

period when the eye finds no image on which to rest, the soul is rendered pure, simple

and clear. Even though it is very obscure there is also greater purity, sublimity and

clarity. But the greater the light of God, the darker it is for the intellect310.

John of the Cross explains how those who possess lose delight. The way John of the

Cross indicates is a way of humility, not attached to anyone, free to love all rationally and

spiritually. It is a way of love for virtue according to God, exceedingly free which brings

deep tranquility of soul. It is a way of emptiness of distractions and recollection of the

senses. One needs to safeguard and increase one’s peace and purity of soul in harmony

with God. John of the Cross tells us that prayer helps us achieve freedom from countless

vanities. Devotion should not be a form of recreation or a way of pleasing oneself rather

than God. One’s true advancement on the spiritual journey can be measured through

one’s greater love for others especially towards the poor311.

308 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 13, 6. 309 Ibid, 1. 13, 11-13. 310 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 14, 2. 311 Ibid, 3. 13; 3. 15; 3. 18.

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John’s way is for interior recollection and communion with God. We need to pray in this

living temple that is the interior recollection of the soul. The way is to be wholly with

God, our minds truly set on him. Through this recollection we can acquire solid virtue

through denial of will, places, appetites, covetousness and spiritual gratifications. John of

the Cross warns us not to trust methods more than God himself and turn our worship into

superstitious ceremonies. John of the Cross finally warns us to practice the good we

preach312.

3.12 Union

John’s writings head towards this final goal, union with God. For John of the Cross it

happens through faith, hope and love; only these uproot disorder313. What is key in John

of the Cross’ theology is that we need to empty the soul of everything that is not God. In

this way union takes place. Through this journey we move towards a more inner personal

relationship, an interior prayer life and a simplification in communication with God314.

John of the Cross tells us that when we taste that union the soul is happy that it passed

through nakedness and purgation. The union with the beloved is achieved through love

but the journey is dark with much trials both on a spiritual and temporal level. John of

the Cross highlights that human sciences cannot understand this process and only those

who experience it will know about it and yet cannot fully describe it315.

For John of the Cross union also happens through the will and love. However he tells us

that habitual voluntary imperfections hinder union and spiritual progress. To achieve

freedom for divine union one needs a complete break with little satisfactions, attachments

and affections316.

312 Ibid, 3. 35; 3. 36; 3. 37; 3. 38; 3. 39; 3. 40; 3. 41; 3. 42; 3. 43; 3. 44; 3. 45. 313 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Introduction, 107. 314 Ibid, 1. 2; 1. 5. 315 Ibid, Prologue, 1-3. 316 Ibid, 1. 11, 3-5.

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It is this longing for the Bridegroom who is sweet and delightful which encourages the

soul to keep on the journey, passing through all these trials and dangers to be united with

him. John of the Cross describes this night as sheer grace because it releases us from

being subjected to passions and captive to natural appetites. Through this night these are

conquered and lulled to sleep and the soul can enjoy union with him317.

John of the Cross teaches us that even though union is possible, total union is not possible

on this earth318. For union with God nakedness and emptiness are required319. Moreover

union happens through the three faculties: intellect, memory and will also through faith,

hope and charity, all of which are in need of purification320. Edith Stein says that God

“wants his sovereign authority over created spirits only as a free gift of their love.”321

And only this ‘todo’ of love and freedom makes this journey meaningful.

3.13 Conclusion

John of the Cross clearly and systematically shows us what idolatry is, who God is and

the experience of the true worshiper of the living God. In John of the Cross idolatry can

take many forms, not only objects, creatures and loved ones can become our idols but

also spiritual experiences themselves. This idolatry has its roots in our desires and

attachments which are the cause of all our difficulties in our relationship with God, others

and self. John of the Cross stresses the need of re-ordering attachments and desires but

elaborates upon the dark process of this purification and the difficulties it poses to the

human person experiencing it. For him, the true living God is an interplay of dark

experiences of great tribulations but which set us free for love, communion, peace and

loving knowledge with himself. With John of the Cross there is no middle way, there is

no compromise. The way is narrow and dark yet clear. 317 Ibid, 1. 13, 6-13. 318 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2, 2; 2. 5. 319 Ibid, 2. 6, 1-5. 320 Ibid, 2, 6. 321 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 161.

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John of the Cross states that if the whole world were to crumble, if it had to come to an

end, if things were to go wrong it is useless to get disturbed. For John of the Cross this

causes more harm than good. He teaches us about a tranquil and peaceful equanimity in

all circumstances as this reaps many blessings and helps the soul. He tells us that such

attitude helps one to judge situations better and be more clear in employing the proper

remedy322

Finally, for John of the Cross to go out at night means solitary and secret contemplation,

that all faculties are engulfed in obscurity and the soul is detained in her journey towards

God. What matters is to allow God do his work in one’s own soul, our only desire to

imitate Jesus’ life up to the very end. Amidst all darkness love becomes the only guide

which leads the way to the Beloved. The Bridegroom transforms us into love and

demands that we love others as he loves, up to the point of forgiving and loving even

those who persecute us. This way for John of the Cross is delightful soaring.323

322 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3. 3; 3. 6. 323 The Dark Night, 2. 16; 2. 17; 2. 18; 2. 19; 2. 20; 2. 21; 2. 22; 2. 23; 2. 24.

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Chapter 4: James Alison’s Theology in Dialogue with Biblical Texts and John of the Cross’ Theology

“I will never believe in the God who will accept as a friend anyone who goes

through this world without making anybody happy. The God who, embracing

humans here on earth, doesn’t communicate to them the joy and happiness of

all human loves put together. The God who would not have become truly

human with all its consequences. The God in whom I cannot hope against all

hope. Yes, my God is ... the other God.”

Juan Arias324

4.1 Introduction

Chapter four aims at bringing Alison’s theology discussed in chapter one in dialogue with

biblical texts used in Chapter two and John of the Cross’ theology as discussed in

Chapter three. References to René Girard’s anthropology will be made when discussing

Alison’s theology. By bringing these various texts together one may find that there are

various commonalities between them. Authors use different languages in their writings

but are essentially pointing towards the same direction – the process through which the

human person needs to go through to be able to relate to the true living God. There is

much harmony between the texts when describing such processes. Having said that, as

already discussed in previous chapters, some texts remain problematic. Difficulties

presented by ‘problematic’ texts are not insurmountable either. In this chapter I will

attempt to argue that John of the Cross may actually offer us a key to help us re-read

these same texts whilst holding on to Alison’s and Girard’s understanding of God as

324 JUAN ARIAS, The God I Don’t Believe In, in World Latin American Agenda 2011. What God What Religion? (on-line) : http://latinoamericana.org/English/2011LatinAmericanAgendaDigital.pdf, 43 [1 October, 2011].

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entirely without violence whilst at the same time acknowledging that darkness

experienced by the soul when in a close relationship with him.

Another challenge in this Chapter is to bring the various languages; anthropological,

theological and spiritual into dialogue. ‘Translation’ is key to harmonize the various

disciplines. I hope this study contributes towards such harmony which has naturally

emerged from the various texts explored. On the other hand, I will not try and cover up

difficulties of understanding encountered, but rather bring them to light. I will attempt to

offer reflections with regards to such difficulties.

4.2 Idolatry & Violence

Idolatry is widely explored by James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross. Alison,

elaborates theologically upon René Girard’s anthropological theories. Girard exposes

humanity’s triangular pattern of desire. He also uncovers the violent-sacred dynamic

which is usually covered-up in rituals, mythological stories, culture and folklore. These

hide humans’ envious, rival and murderous desires for each other, resolved through

scapegoat mechanisms and victimization processes325. Scripture shows that turning away

from the living God implies degeneration; the human person becomes an image of Satan

and can end up murdering his own brother326. For John of the Cross appetites and

attachments, even to good things can become problematic and forms of idolatry. He

emphasizes our disordered patterns of desires and attachments. Such disordered

attachments hinder our relationship with the living God and fellow human beings327.

Within all of these texts we find an emphasis on the paschal mystery. All texts point at

Jesus’ incarnation, life, death and resurrection as the only true image of God able to offer

humanity real liberation and salvation but purification is also part of it.

325 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, London 2003, 283-325. RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, London 2005, 1-71. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 168-175. 326 GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch vol 1., Great Britain 2003, 22-27. 327 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 6, 1-6; 1. 10, 3.

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Texts studied show that idolatry leads human beings into forms of behaviours that are

contrary to one’s own deeper desires. Desire is problematic when run by idolatry but it is

desire itself that offers solutions but it needs direction. Desire needs to be re-molded into

desire according to the desires of the living God328 which we can find revealed in

Scripture. Idolatry disrupts our relationships with the living God and humanity. It leads

us into violent forms of relating to each other, as all texts explain. Interestingly, they all

also warn us about the risk of spirituality itself becoming a form of idolatry, once again

resulting in people persecuting fellow human beings through that same worship they

believe they are offering to the living God. By reflecting upon idolatry one can locate

violence, its origin and source. Scripture tells us about ‘the first murder’ linking it

directly to jealousy as its cause. It is presented as a result of the first example of corrupt

religion leading to human bloodshed329. In fact, murder and violence are images of Satan

which Scripture gives (cf. Jn 8, 44-47) – murder as that act which undoes the plan God

has for humans330. Scripture also warns us that God-given laws themselves can become a

source of idol worship with James Alison and John of the Cross elaborating much on this

notion. Pope Benedict in Deus Caritas Est says “The unbreakable bond between love of

God and love of neighbour is emphasized. One is so closely connected to the other that

to say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbour or hate them

altogether”331.

In the New Testament, Scripture explores how ‘law abiding’ priests and elders conferred

together to actually kill the Son of God – The Image of God whom they failed to

recognize. They believed they were worshipping the living God and serving him by

killing Jesus. Like Cain, they understood worship very wrongly. In actual fact they only

worshipped themselves and their own institutions. This is a narcissistic approach to

328 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 92-108. 329 Cain, in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, editors: T. Desmond Alexander – David W. Baker, USA 2003, 107. 330 Ibid. 331 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), (25 December 2005), India 2006, 16.

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religion and spirituality332. John of the Cross writes about spiritual appetites which can

blind the person rather than bring the soul closer to God. John of the Cross’ emphasis on

this point goes as far as saying that we should distrust religious and spiritual methods

themselves because these might replace God himself, thus becoming forms of

superstitious ceremonies333. Alison would add that such false worship leads to the

persecution and victimization of some others334.

And yet, it is our own desires which hold the key, as Teresa of Avila points out335. What

we should struggle against is not our own desires but their corruption through idol

worship. Ideas about the self have been used and misused for many ages. Unfortunately,

a morbid understanding of the self and its desires is at times presented by some religious

people. Jesus’ idea of ‘hating oneself’ has been often used in abusive ways and yet that

same concept contains much value. As Christians we need to re-propose this same idea

in its healthy form and wholesome dimension. We need to deconstruct any meanings

derived from Jansenism336 attached to such notions to reach their genuine meaning once

more. James Alison and John of the Cross are two helpful authors for this kind of

deconstruction. It is the narcissistic self we need to go against, that self which closes us

onto ourselves taking us away from the living God and fellow human beings.

James Alison and John of the Cross elaborate much on the idea of true worship, idolatry

and violence. For Alison, the unifying expulsion dynamic is the result of false worship.

For him, the human person needs to be stripped of all sorts of idolatry and violent

acquisition which bring about false peace. John of the Cross describes this painful

stripping in both the Ascent and the Dark Night. In Alison’s theology, the idol is the

332 In Psychology the term Narcissist is used to describe a personality trait or disorder. One could argue that this reflects a form of idol worship, the worship of the self be it personal, social, cultural or even institutional. See: CALVIN S. HALL – GARDNER LINDZEY, Introduction to Theories of Personality, Canada 1985, 163. 333 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3. 35; 3. 36; 3. 37; 3. 38; 3. 39; 3. 40; 3. 41; 3. 42; 3. 43; 3. 44; 3. 45. 334 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 270-271. 335 CRISTIANA DOBNER, OCD, Teresa di Gesu (1515-1582) < Mi Amado a mi y yo a mi Amado > in I Custodi dell’Incanto, Citta’ del Vaticano 2002, 99-124. 336 Jansenius and Jansenism in New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, (on-line) : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08285a.htm [25 October 2011].

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violent-sacred dynamic which protects, hides and presents as sacred the perspective of

the persecutor. The idol of the violent-sacred has many dynamics from which it

functions, one of them being violent reciprocity. The violent-sacred covers up something

that is deeply hidden within the human person, our refusal of life. Violence is part of the

human condition which needs resolution. Yet the good news is that there is remedy and

humanity is offered a way out. John of the Cross also speaks of hidden attachments

which hinder us from moving forward, which we thought were good things but in reality

are found to be forms of idolatry. For Alison, the idol covers up the great deceit;

believing that violent ways, even in their subtlest forms of exclusion and expulsion, are

the way to serve God337. Alison also offers us reflections about humanity’s own

persecutory projections about God. Sometimes these are also found in Scripture and they

also form part of the violent-sacred cover-up. He tells us that in reality we have more

similarities with our enemies and that violence can never resolve violence, even if it

seems that it does resolve it. René Girard and Alison show us that such ‘peace’ is never

long lasting. Alison reminds us that revelation is found amidst human violence but

always on the side of the victim. Since we tend to be violent creatures and violence is

internalized, the law itself can be turned into an instrument of murder, as the New

Testament shows338. John of the Cross reassures us that transformation and union with

the true living God are possible but the journey is dark, long and perilous though it is also

love leading to love.

James elaborates about idolatry and violence with regards to human relationships within

society. On the other hand, John focuses more on the individual person and his or her

own internal processes. Elijah also reminds us that true worship and idolatry can at times

converge and lack differentiation within society339. I believe that James Alison’s

theology, the Elijah texts, John of the Cross’ theology complement each other. Together

they cover the whole spectrum of individual and community processes for

transformation. 337 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 102-111. 338 Ibid, 9-63; 186-265. 339 Elijah, in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books, editors: Bill T. Arnold – H. G. M. Williamson, England 2005, 253-254.

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One of the most beautiful images that Scripture offers us about true worship is when the

women encounter the resurrected Jesus in the garden at dawn (cf. Mt 28, 8-10; Jn 20, 14-

18). Personally I find it very interesting that Scripture presents women worshiping Jesus

Christ on that glorious morning of the resurrection, but also presents them standing at the

foot of the cross (cf. Jn 19, 25-26). Moreover, Scripture shows us that during true

worship great joy is present. It seems to me that once again, the fullness of worship is

found in Jesus’ resurrection, the cross being an important passage. Pope Benedict

describes the passage of the Cross in this way:

“The true shepherd is one who knows even the path that passes through the

valley of death; one who walks with me even on the path of final solitude,

where no one can accompany me, guiding me through: he himself has walked

this path, he has descended into the kingdom of death, he has conquered

death, and he has returned to accompany us now and to give us the certainty

that, together with him, we can find a way through. The realization that there

is One who even in death accompanies me, and with his “rod and his staff

comforts me”, so that “I fear no evil” (cf. Ps 23 [22]:4)—this was the new

“hope” that arose over the life of believers”340.

340 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 6 [17 September 2011].

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4.3 Sacrifice

The difference between a Judeo-Christian understanding of sacrifice and a pagan one is

clear. In both the Old and New Testaments we have interesting explanations of what God

desires in terms of worship; what pleases him and what he abhors. Jesus is clear, the

disposition of one’s own heart is what matters. Making peace with one’s own brother is

far more important than the offering itself (cf. Mt 5, 22-24). Scholars argue that the

disposition of the heart is the key reading of the Cain and Abel story. The issue of the

offering acceptance is peripheral. Abel’s offering was accepted because of the integrity

of his heart and not because of the nature of the offering itself341.

Sacrifice and worship in themselves are unimportant, they can actually lead people away

from loving one another. False worship leads people into violence; this God abhors.

Scripture clearly shows that sacrifice and worship are no magic solutions. Jesus through

his own life shows us how the true worship of the living God leads us into a state of total

non-violent way of loving the other. Jesus, through his own death and resurrection makes

fraternal love possible again, giving it a deeper and fuller meaning through his own

blood.

The interplay of stories, those of Cain and Abel, Elijah sacrifice-contest, Judas and Jesus,

is an interesting one. Cain kills Abel, possibly in Elijah’s story Abel finds his own

revenge, yet YHWH shows Elijah that there is more to it. Judas’ worship, like that of

Cain goes wrong. Judas kills himself342, unlike Cain who is punished but protected from

being killed. Jesus, like Abel is also killed but Jesus is given back to us as the forgiving-

victim. However, when Jesus speaks of Judas during the last supper he expresses anger

towards him, in strong Hebrew ways of expression (cf. Mt 26, 24-25). Stephen like Jesus

is killed as well but he sees heaven open before his eyes just before his death (cf. Acts 7,

341 Abel, in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, editors: T. Desmond Alexander – David W. Baker, USA 2003,4-5. 342 The violent dynamic is usually covered up. Once exposed it looses it power but violence remains present, problematic and unresolved. Only by gazing at the crucified one we can be healed. See: René Girard, The Scapegoat, translated by Yvonne Freccero, United States of America 1986, 49-61.

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55-56). Saul is there witnessing and approving of his killing in the name of the law,

religion and God (cf. Acts 8, 1). Later, Saul becomes a penitent-persecutor himself and a

key figure within Christianity and our Maltese faith-history. All these biblical figures

show us that rejecting the living God is problematic. Desire not fashioned according to

the desire of God leads to the murder of one’s own brother, even by those who think they

are worshiping the living God. Zeal, rivalry and worship can be very problematic

themselves leading people away from the true and living God. However Jesus’

forgiveness opens up a way even to those same murderers.

It is my opinion that the above mentioned relationships and dynamics point in the

direction of Girard’s theory. God does not require human blood, but human blood was

necessary. It was the human counterpart who required the fulfillment of such request343.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus utters “Why do you want to kill me?” (Jn 7, 9). In John 12,

9-11 we also find how the decision to kill Jesus is also linked to the decision to kill

Lazarus, the one whom Jesus loved and brought back to life. The interpretation of Jesus’

crucifixion as God’s will is central in terms of our understanding of sacrifice - these

elements need not be ignored. In Gethsemane Jesus prays to the Father, if possible to

take this away from him, the Son talking to the Father.

Understanding the will of the Father at this point is key. Later on in this Chapter I will be

arguing that God’s will in Gethsemane for Jesus was that he keeps on loving them

anyway, not be run by their violence rather than requesting Jesus’ blood. James Alison

speaks of Jesus drinking the cup of human wrath - all of it, undoing it in his own body344.

John of the Cross does not specifically explore these concepts. I suspect he might

slightly differ in his interpretation. John’s interpretation of Claudia’s intervention might

shed some light onto his own understanding of Jesus’ death. One could say that his

343 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 180-223. 344 JAMES ALISON (2010), From Impossibility to Responsibility: Developing New Narratives for Gay Catholic Living in James Alison. Theology (on-line) : http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng63.html [12 November 2010].


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would be more on the side of the classical and ‘traditional’ understanding of Jesus’

crucifixion345.

René Girard and James Alison speak of sacred violence, of an understanding of God that

is both disturbing and pacifying. This image of God, which according to Girard and

Alison is false, is the most common understanding that Christians have of God the Father,

especially of his intervention in Gethsemane. Alison argues that the Catholic faith is not

a rival sacrificial system but an undoing of all violent-sacred forms found in all cultures.

He carries on saying that systems of goodness are terribly dangerous. For Alison, the

only real goodness is to become penitent, and this is revealed to us by Jesus Christ and

his story. The Christian journey is to not get involved in power and violence. Yet this

choice makes us immensely vulnerable ourselves, as the Jesus story reveals346. I do not

believe that John of the Cross’ theology and Catholic tradition are in conflict with that of

Alison. However, I do believe that Girard’s and Alison’s contribution do bring about

fresh dimensions to our understanding of God the Father, Jesus’ sacrifice and the whole

paschal mystery so dear for Christians.

James Alison speaks of deicide347. For him and Girard it is clear, God is entirely

benevolent, loving and non-violent. The killing of Jesus is pure murder, though only

through that murder the satanic dynamic could be exposed for what it is. The big lie that

humanity is trapped into is this sacred violent understanding of God. However, one issue

remains problematic within this understanding - the principle of justice. John of the

Cross’ explanation of purgation can help us out of this dilemma. As I will be arguing

later on, the dark night fulfills the requirements of justice. However, as John himself

emphasizes, it is all love. I believe that John of the Cross and James Alison are not

talking about very different things.

345 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 16, 3. 346 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 224-262. JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 98-137. 347 IBID, 98-197.

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The idea of non-violence and abhorrence of violence is not exclusive to Alison or Girard

either. Catholic and Christian teachings uphold this value. Recently Rev. Dr Thomas

Finger, a member of the Mennonite church, made such reflections during a workshop at

the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, held in Kingston, Jamaica. On Monday

23rd of May he presented a paper called “Peace: the Lens for Re-visioning Christian

Theology and Mission”348. He said that “Sin is not only the personal breaking of divine

laws, but also the corporate turning away from and losing sight of God, peace and

justice”. He added “If the way that led to death is violent, the way that leads to life

cannot be violent…The resurrection itself reversed the logic of violence and condemns

those who killed Jesus”349.

4.4 Desire

“Let me seek You in my desire; let me desire You in my seeking. Let me find You by

loving You; let me love You when I find You.” St. Anselm350

Scripture clearly reveals what God’s desires are: to have a deep loving and caring

relationship with one another. His desire for humanity is for communion with him and

amongst ourselves. God’s desire is for mercy not sacrifice, to seek him because life is to

be found there (cf. Am 5,4; Jn 17, 3), to imitate him as this opens up possibilities for

creative living351. God’s desire for us is to be perfect like him and this happens through

imitation of Jesus (cf. Mt 5, 48; Jn 13, 12-17; Eph 5,1-2). God’s desire is also his will, a

life-force available for all humanity.

348 THOMAS FINGER, Peacemaking can be rooted in theology and mission, in Overcoming Violence. Churches seeking Reconciliation and Peace (on-line) http://www.overcomingviolence.org/en/news-and-events/news/dov-news-english/article/2913/what-does-gods-securi-1.html [24 July 2011]. 349 Ibid. 350 Prayers for Everyday; 50 Inspirational prayers from around the world, project editor Emma Beare, Bounty Books, London 2007. 351 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 9-63; 186-265.

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At other times God’s desires seem to be unclear, like in Abraham’s story. On the other

hand we are not sure of Abraham’s desires either. What is clear is that Abraham’s desire

for God is very strong to the point of being ready to kill his own long-awaited son in

‘sacrifice’ to please God. Surely, Abraham’s desire for God goes far. At the end, God

shows Abraham that he does not desire that kind of sacrifice, though the demand was

present. However Scripture also clearly tells us that God was ‘only’ testing Abraham and

not really demanding Isaac’s sacrifice. Context, particularly pagan culture of sacrificing

children to idol gods is surely very important when reading and interpreting this story

about God and Abraham352. Once again, similar to the Cain and Abel interpretation of

the story, the important message would be that God is not requiring that kind of sacrifice.

The text says that God wanted to test Abraham. Clearly God did not intend to ask for

that sacrifice from the beginning. It also seems that God is teaching Abraham something

new about God-human relationships, sacrifice and worship. The theological lesson is the

important focus rather than the test-demand.

Scripture also reveals that our own desire for God can go wrong. Cain’s worship and his

desire to please God led him to murder his own brother. Genesis points out at something

important; the art of mastering desires. I believe Genesis is talking about a particular set

of desires. Envy and zeal are two of these problematic desires. Abel, Jesus and Stephen

are all killed because of envy, anger and zeal (cf. Gen 4, 5; Mt 27, 18; Acts 7, 9).

Earthly powers create desires within us as well. These tend to clash with God’s own

desires for us. Jesus highlights this clash in his sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5, 1-12) and

the Last Judgment story (cf. Mt 25, 31-46). John of the Cross explains in detail how any

attachment which is not according to the desire of God is problematic and a form of

idolatry. Jesus offers us the possibility to find our desire anew, full of life after

purification353.

352 STEPHEN C. BARTON, Idolatry. False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity, London 2007, 7-21. 353 IAIN MATTHEW, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 19-27.

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Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross agree that we are all trapped in all sorts of

idolatry. The root of this problem is desire but the root of its solution is also found within

desire. All of these texts see imitation of Jesus Christ as a remedy and the way which

leads to life. The solution is to desire according to the desire of God as revealed by

himself. John of the Cross explains in detail the cost of this imitation. It is the reverse

way to our own desires which are corrupted by all sorts of other desires. This re-ordering

of desire is a painful process. Gregory of Nyssa states that we can be where our desire

is354.

Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross speak about the need to re-structure desire and

give it direction. They give different and particular descriptions for that but all of them

point out at envious desire, this problematic desire which governs much of human

relationships. I wish to point out that James Alison and John of the Cross are both talking

about a new pattern of desire that has no ambivalence, conflict or danger in it because

this is a desire according to the desire of God355. I personally want to point out that if we

are to imitate Jesus Christ and enter this spiritual journey, it is very important to identify

God’s true desires and have true images of that, lest we believe we are imitating God but

in fact we are only trapped in other forms of idolatry, as James Alison, Scripture and John

of the Cross warn us.

When we are functioning from envy or reacting violently we are not imitating the Father.

True desire is located in the Father and Jesus embodies that. All violent-sacred desires,

exclusions and expulsions, all relationships and structures rooted in power and

domination, are not images of God’s love. And yet, as Alison points out, Jesus is at

peace with human desire, because he is not run by what the other is doing. He is not

functioning from violent mimetic desires356. If we want to be like him we are to function

354 JOHANNES QUASTEN, Patrology. Christian Classics, vol 3., United States of America 1959, 295-296. 355 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 109-124. 355 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, , 1. 5, 2-8. 356 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 34-53, 265-279.

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in that same way. Violent mimesis needs to be transformed into pacific mimetic

desire357, just like the Father and the Son.

4.5 Love

Though not always explicitly mentioned, James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross

point at love in various ways, that is, at one’s own disposition, openness and desire for

fraternal loving relationships. The three locate love as central to human relationships and

to the human-God relationship, one’s own disposition as key. All of these relationships

can be problematic; desire, love and their purification take centre stage.

James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross point out that unless one actively loves his

brother and sister and shares life with them, none of one’s own religious beliefs and

worship is real. The end goal of all prayer and worship is a simple one but getting there

is a painful and dark process of purification. Any other result is false and reduces all

forms of worship or religious ceremonies into banal forms of idolatry.

As Alison points out, the understanding and interpretation of the death of Jesus is key in

understanding who God is and what his desires are. Such understanding has implications

for our behaviour if we are to imitate him. One could argue that we need to understand

the love that God has for us to be able to live, love and follow God’s own desires as he

himself demands.

John of the Cross reassures us that God only looks at the faith and purity of the prayerful

heart. He tells us that the Christian way gets dark but is filled with joy. Eventually

contemplation infuses love and wisdom. He also clearly states that religious practices

and spiritual experiences themselves lead nowhere. What counts is our internal

disposition and to move forward in faith. To grow in love towards God and fellow

357 Ibid, 230-248.

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human beings is what matters. Union with God happens through love and wisdom358.

This is the love which is the fire of contemplation359.

Ursula King during her talk about Teilhard de Chardin said, “There is a communion with

God, and a communion with earth, and a communion with God through earth” 360. These

words capture in essence what Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross are describing and

what I am trying to point out in this section and Chapter. Emotional-Spiritual health in

all of our relationships is what we are talking about, a heart that is at peace and in

harmony with all of creation and its Creator.

Human desires; to be loved and to give love can lead a person on to the negative path of

life experiencing emotions such as rivalry, envy, zeal or anger, leading that person to

betray or even kill his own brother. Human beings can be misled into these dark places

because of their perceived ‘relationship’ with God, if such emotions take over. These

desires need to be mastered and purified through our own real relationship with the living

God. Only after this purification we can enjoy true freedom, to be open to receive love

and offer love to God, fellow human beings and all of creation as forgiven penitent

persecutors.

358 The Dark Night 2. 5, 1; 1. 14, 4. 359 Ibid, 2. 10, 2. 360 URSULA KING, Teilhard de Chardin and the Contemporary Mystic Quest, Occasional Paper 17, Discern Institute for Research on the Signs of the Times, 9.

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4.6 Beyond us

“…all theology is partial and incomplete, no theology ‘cracks’ the truth about God”361.

One important element that emerged whilst studying James Alison, Biblical texts and

John of the Cross is that no matter what we understand and grasp about God, no matter

what insights we receive and how much we grow and mature, God is and always remains

beyond us. I believe this is another key notion which emerged out of the various texts I

attempted to study. Both James Alison and John of the Cross highlight this. The

implication of this understanding is that no understanding or insight can become an

absolute. No human achievement or understanding can claim divinity. The Trinitarian

God is the only divinity that is always beyond us. What is human is always finite and

limited, believing otherwise is another form of idolatry. Pope Benedict tells us that “The

truth of negative theology was highlighted by the Fourth Lateran Council, which

explicitly stated that however great the similarity that may be established between

Creator and creature, the dissimilarity between them is always greater”362.

Though God remains a mystery and beyond our grasp, he does not leave the human being

floating into oblivion. Love and wisdom are his gifts to us, the way he communicates

with the human person and through which we can achieve communion with him and

humanity363. Clearly, James Alison, Biblical texts and John of the Cross identify God as

desiring to be with human beings and the human person longing to be with his and her

God. It is a mutual desire and through this desire the human person and God can

encounter each other and enter into a real relationship but after the human persons goes

through a purification process - a great mystery. Whilst on the one hand God is divine

and always beyond us and on the other hand the human person is a creature and limited, a

361 ELIZABETH STUART and others, Religion is a Queer Thing. A Guide to the Christian Faith for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People, London 1997, 26. 362 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 43 [17 September 2011]. 363 The Dark Night, 2. 10, 2.



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loving relationship between the two is possible but the human person must learn to

master his or her desires, even for that same God.

Though the human person is a creature with great potential she or he needs to be aware

and acknowledge his or her limitations. What the human person can glimpse of the

divine is only a speck and a ray of light. The rest remains beyond our grasp, at least till

we are here on earth. Because of these limitations of ours we are to be careful not to

make of that ray of light we might glimpse an absolute either. Of course, as humans

desiring God we hope that one day we glimpse something more of his love, goodness and

beauty. God-human relationships function within these incredible tensions and in fact

God-human relationships seem to be as problematic as all human relationships.

One of the main difficulties lies when a particular person or group of people claim

absolute what might be a revelation that is unfolding gradually. Scripture reveals this

clearly (cf. Jn 9, 1-41). God remains beyond the Law, even that Law he himself gave.

He remains beyond human understanding. Nothing equals God. He is neither restricted

to images nor ideals. It is only in this openness that we can walk on the path that leads us

towards the living God. James Alison and John of the Cross clearly testify about this

Biblical notion of God. Being in relation to the living God takes us beyond our own

selves and securities, be they physical, psychological, emotional, ideological or spiritual.

John of the Cross describes this kind of presence as dark. He also describes relations to

God as if having nothing to hold on to. He explains that it is a dangerous space for the

human person because we do not understand this kind of existence364.

John of the Cross elaborates about this beyond. He also says that God has no relation, no

essential likeness to us creatures and yet the great mystery lies in the fact that we

creatures do carry some likeness to God365. James Alison explains how this beyond of

God is also beyond our good and bad fabrications. James Alison highlights how God is

massively prior to us (cf. Jn 17,5), this is the beyond for Alison. He tells us that God is

364 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, 1. 2. 3; 2. 4. 365 Ibid, 2. 8, 3-4.

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more like nothing at all than like anything that is, for us humans. This ‘is’ of God always

risks being tainted with idolatry, no matter how well meaning this may be366.

4.7 Another kind of God

James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross identify the living God as our source for

life. When anything or anyone else becomes that source, the relationship becomes

idolatrous. Sex itself can become a form of idolatry if we relate to it as our life source,

excluding the divine presence from it - violence enters that dynamic as well (cf. Jdt 12,

16). Men themselves may become idols if they set themselves up as gods. The Old

Testament identifies such men clearly (cf. Jdt 3, 8). Life is to be shared, sex an

expression of that kind of sharing of love and life.

James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross identify a God who is simple in his ways

of relating. The way God relates to human beings is in a very particular personal way,

not in a cold hierarchical military fashion. In the New Testament, Jesus dislocates the

temple completely. He locates the sacred and the temple within the human person and

his or her loving relationships. Thus, all of creation becomes a sacred loving expression

of God for the human person; his presence found within our relationships with each

other, earth, the cosmos and God himself. The various texts teach us that one cannot

contemplate God without contemplating the human person in his or her relations. Thus,

Christianity pushes us to open up new spaces in our hearts and make room for others.

The way is brotherly and sisterly love. This love needs to be offered universally and it is

this the demand that God makes on the human person - his desire.

As discussed earlier on, the texts emphasize the risk that spirituality and religion

themselves can become forms of idolatry. When religion and spirituality are detached

from human experience and relationships, especially with those who are weak and

366 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 270-271.

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vulnerable in society, they become false. God is also embodied within the community.

God is to be found within human experiences and relationships, within the story and

history of humanity, even in its darkest moments. Moreover, the Divine is always

present on the side of victims and not on that of persecutors, whoever these may be367.

Our Creator is full of love for the human person. All of creation is an expression of his

love for humanity. Out of this love all was created, “before the foundation of the world”

(Jn 17, 24). He is our benevolent provider, relates to the human person in a personal way

and is not in rivalry with any person or anything created by himself. He visits his people,

the fullness of his visitation is found in Jesus. He brings about life, health, forgiveness

and is actively kind to us though we are ungrateful and selfish. God is also merciful and

full of compassion - Raham368. As discussed earlier on, God remains always beyond our

grasp, as the story of Elijah reveals. What we glimpse of him can never become an

absolute. However we can enter into a loving relationship with God. This happens when

all idols have been destroyed, and once that happens we have to be careful not to re-

mythologize the true and living God we found. We are to stay on the alert!

Alison highlights the idea of the single benevolent God which sets us free from the

violent-sacred dynamic. John of the Cross’ theology says that God’s love for the human

person implies darkness and purification. James Alison makes reference to this

disconcerting experience as well; of losing what used to give us security but was false.

Whilst all loving notions about God are beautiful and true, during the study process of the

various texts I felt something lacking. In this study I am defending René Girard’s claim

that God is entirely non-violent and does not require human blood as a form of

reparation. And yet, something seems to be missing in such a concept. One element

which I would like to explore is the idea of justice, to try and answer my own question of

what is lacking? I believe that there is agreement in the Christian world that God is not

367 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 209-248. 368 SHMUEL TRIGANO, Rahamim: Birthing Humanity. The Jewish Vocation of the 21st Century, (on-line) : http://www.shmuel-trigano.fr/texts-in-English/RAHamim.pdf [2 October 2011].

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violent, that he is benevolent and loving. Yet justice is also an attribute that God has and

exercises. It is God’s demand for justice that may pose difficulties in our understanding

and interpretation of Jesus’ death. In the Old and New Testaments we see different forms

of justice being exercised. Where does justice stand in James Alison’s and John of the

Cross’ theology? In the next section I will try to reflect about the tension existing

between love, sin and justice. God is in an intimate personal relationship with humanity

and our relations with him are marked by these tensions as already described, on an

individual and community level. I believe that John of the Cross’ theology about

purification can offer us a key to resolve such questions.

4.8 Purification, Punishments, Misunderstandings

and other Transformations…

“This innocent sufferer has attained the certitude of hope: there is a God, and God can

create justice in a way that we cannot conceive, yet we can begin to grasp it through

faith.”369

Even though God is love and he is benevolent, he definitely is not a teddy bear. The idea

of punishment is very much present in the Old Testament. René Girard and James Alison

speak of violence within the Old Testament as human projections370. And, yet there is

something which seems to be quite ‘painful’ and coming from God. Alison does point

out that letting go of our violent understanding of the sacred is a painful exercise, but it is

John of the Cross who elaborates on this experience in detail and may offer us an

important key to resolve the dilemma between love and justice. The Elijah story already

pointing at this tension, between judgment and grace. Possibly, what we humans

misunderstand is the process of purification that the person seriously committed to the

369 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 43 [18 September 2011]. 370 RENÉ GIRARD, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, translated with a foreword, by James G. Williams, United States 2001, 103-120.



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living God needs to go through. Such a process may come across as a form of

punishment, abandonment, or even rejection from God’s side. However, God is only

preparing us for more love and beauty. I want to argue that God is also exercising his

justice here, yet in a loving way. Maybe we need to re-think and re-define our

understanding of justice, from a post-resurrection perspective371. Though justice is

present, it is embedded in love and forgiveness. Yet justice is a painful experience no

matter how much love is present within it. Pope Benedicts says that “The incarnation of

God in Christ has so closely linked the two together—judgment and grace—that justice is

firmly established: we all work out our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12).

Nevertheless grace allows us all to hope, and to go trustfully to meet the Judge whom we

know as our “advocate”, or parakletos (cf. 1 Jn 2:1)”372.

I believe that here we need to differentiate between violent punishment and loving

correction which fulfills the obligations of love but also those of justice. In Scripture we

find an interesting dynamic which we cannot ignore and which reveals something else

about God. The force of God the Father which at times seems to have violent

expressions is present. It is a force that is always used in favor of the oppressed and the

weak. The Magnificat expresses this dynamic elaborately and beautifully. As Christians

we believe in gradual revelation and maybe we need to apply this principle to such

understanding of God’s character as well, and yet we cannot ignore it either - again it is

the tension between love and justice. Proverbs tells us “whoever sows injustice reaps

disaster” (Prov 22, 8).

The Paschal mystery reveals both God the Father and the Son as entirely without

violence. However, the Son is resurrected and given back to humanity in forgiveness but

still calling us to conversion. However, violence is again present in Scripture particularly

in the Book of Revelation. Girard does say that even Christian’s themselves miss on this

371 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 70-83. 372 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 47 [18 September 2011].



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essential message of Jesus’ cross. In the name of religion they committed much violence

throughout the ages believing they are pleasing God by doing so373. James Alison in his

book Living in the End Times re-reads the Book of Revelation through the lenses of René

Girard’s theory, including Jesus’ own second coming as entirely without violence, yet the

encounter reveals once more the hidden violence on the side of humanity. In Alison’s

theology God is entirely without violence but his action subverts hidden violence

disguised as sacred within all human societies. Jesus is only exposing our violence to

free humanity from it and not its cause374.

Going back to misunderstandings about God’s justice, Scripture points at various

examples of these. For example, in Eljah’s story, both the widow and Obadiah express

fear when meeting Elijah. They seem to be aware of their sin or afraid that they might

have sinned. They are afraid of punishment - of being killed or that one of their loved

ones has to be ‘sacrificed’ to make up for their sin, as punishment (cf. 1 Kings 17, 18; 18,

9). It seems to me that Scripture clearly shows that all of these assumptions about God

are wrong. The widow and Obadiah receive life and they both recognize the true living

God as the one who provides and brings about life.

And yet there are other aspects of God which seem to be difficult to comprehend. Once

again Elijah and John of the Cross may be of help. For instance, Cain is not killed for

killing his brother but negative consequences for himself and future generations do come

about. He is protected from being killed, yet retribution is present (cf. Gen 4, 13-16).

However, once Cain is punished God offers him the opportunity to begin anew375.

However, Abel is replaced by Seth, the father of Enosh – it is the line of Adam and Seth

which invokes God in true worship (cf. Gen 4, 26)376.

373 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 180-280. 374 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 117-197. 375 Cain, in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, editors: T. Desmond Alexander – David W. Baker, USA 2003, 110. 376 Ibid, 108.

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Elijah’s anti-climax night experience is filled with pain and confusion but becomes a

mystical space for transformation377. I want to present this experience as key for the

dilemma I am presenting within this section to help us in understanding God as

benevolent and non-violent yet fulfilling the demands of justice. It is in this space, which

the Bible points at and which John of the Cross describes in detail that both love and

justice are fulfilled without negating one another other. The encounter is twofold; an

encounter with God which brings about the ecstasy of love but this ecstasy is only the

beginning of a painful process which eventually leads to the fulfillment of love. It is a

process which brings about a radical transformation in the human person and becomes his

or her habitus378. When God intervenes in this way, the experience for the human person

is dreadful. It feels like punishment, rejection, abandonment, agony and violence. John

of the Cross reassures us that God is only destroying our disordered attachments,

appetites and ways of relating which in fact are forms of idolatry. Our own relationship

with God itself is marked by false images of him, though we believe we are relating to

the living God. James Alison points out at this dynamic as well and he speaks about this

terrible experience which liberates us. Only through this experience are we transformed.

The end result is delightful as we become truly free for the living God and each other.

John of the Cross talks about learning how to bear this suffering creatively379. It is of

course suffering and it is important to highlight this. Sometimes when reading about it

one may get a romantic idea of this suffering, but for the one experiencing it this is a

terrible space. It is a mystery though how this suffering becomes a mystical and creative

space for growth and transformation380. It is through this process that God purifies the

human person. He shows us our temperament and hidden wickedness. It is a great

suffering for the person going through this process because the person feels forsaken.

John of the Cross reassures us that God is the author of all this. Faith and charity are the

two virtues that help us navigate through this darkness and void. However, it is God who 377 KEES WAAIJMAN, The Mystical Space of Carmel. A Commentary on the Carmelite Rule, Leuven, 1999, 1-45. 378 EDITH STEIN, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., Washington 2003, 187. 379 Iain Matthew, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain 1995, 72-85. 380 PETER SLATTERY, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality, New York 1991, 77-79.

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places us and leads us across this darkness and void - there is nothing romantic about

such spaces. Here, the human person also experiences repentance, mortification and

weeping. I want to argue that it is this process that fulfills the demands of justice.

Though terrible, it is still non-violent, but may feel like that. However, purification is not

for the destruction of the person but only to become free and open to receive more. It is

all love. Julian of Norwich writes “I shall shatter you for your vain passions and your

vicious pride; and after that I shall gather you together and make you humble and meek,

pure and holy, by uniting you with me.”381

John of the Cross tells us that only nothingness does not oppose God. The human person

resists on a natural level to enter into this space. And yet, this seems to be the way, the

narrow gate that Jesus talks about. Nakedness and forgetfulness become our companions

on this way. Catherine of Siena records Jesus telling her, "I am He who is; you are she

who is not."382

Alison, like John of the Cross speaks of this ‘terrible’ space of transformation. He tells

us that Christian hope is in fact a place of terror and utter disorientation. In this space

there is a collapse of all that is familiar and well known. In this mystical space violent

reciprocity is transformed into a friendly one. God uncovers who we really are and it is

not a pleasant sight. Here we lose our idols. We learn to cease to grasp onto insecurities.

In this space of transformation the person undergoes a total re-structuring of the internal

life and learns to let go of anger and envy383. Alison uses the story of Jonah to explain

this process. To me, James Alison and John of the Cross seem like two musicians

playing in perfect harmony when describing this process. They both tell us that there is

no remedy for the person going through this process. The human person experiences

disintegration but in this space the person is held into being. James Alison beautifully

highlights how human beings though held in such love tend to keep refusing being

created. Living in this space without being or belonging is scary for the human person 381 JULIAN OF NORWICH, Revelations of Divine Love, London 1998, 81. 382 CATHERINE M. MEADE, CSJ, Catherine of Siena: To Purify God’s Church, United States of America 2007, 75. 383 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 210, 235-236.

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because there is great darkness. Our nature experiences an aversion to it, to creation

itself. And yet, to be re-created is to become completely and joyfully dependent on God -

the real living God384.

Similarly to John of the Cross, James Alison tells us that we are bound in our own

imaginations. John of the Cross also states that we need to renounce all forms of visions,

spiritual experiences and locutions themselves385. Alison is mostly referring to being

bound in our violent understanding of God’s desires. Like John of the Cross, he

describes prayer as a form of detox, as a therapy for our distorted desires. John of the

Cross and James Alison seem to pick up and elaborate on a theme that Scripture points at;

that living a life committed to the true God also means going through such a collapse. It

is this collapse that brings about something new.

René Girard and James Alison emphasize that the Judeo-Christian text is the only one

which uncovers the ‘sacred lie’ and therefore speaks of such dynamics. The lie itself is a

form of idolatry. Becoming free from it is a painful and dark process but a necessary

one. Violence is discovered to be where it really is, on humanity’s side. Yet, it is only

through this process that we can learn to be held by someone who is much bigger and

beyond our grasping. Alison tells us that Jesus plays the game of life on entirely different

terms, teaching us to live from within - in an utterly non-rival way386. Like John of the

Cross he tells us that only through a dark process are we set free, and thus we are able to

taste what it feels like to be alive forever. Christianity brings us into a story beyond

imagination.

James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross warn us that ‘holiness’ is not a guarantee

either. John of the Cross’ theology helps the human person put away childhood ways and

grow. James Alison is also talking about growth, after all it is Jesus himself who points

in this direction but growth is painful. For those who manage to get through, John of the

Cross says that the soul is rendered pure, simple and clear, though dark for the intellect.

384 JAMES ALISON, Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay, New York 2001, 86-104. 385 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 17, 3-4; 2. 19, 9; 2. 19, 9; 2. 21, 11; 2. 28, 1; 2. 28, 4-5. 386 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 159-178.

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He tells us that we become exceedingly free and experience a deep tranquility of the

soul387. It is a process that transforms our gaze, and that is why it is embedded in love

and not violence. Though terrible and painful it may be, it brings about life and not

destruction. James Alison tells us that the key learning about ourselves is to accept that

we are wrong and violent, and that is ok. What is important is that we detoxify from all

false notions of God. Alison tells us that the real relationship we can have with the living

God is that of penitent persecutors388. The story of Saul transformed into St. Paul attests

to this. Like John of the Cross, Alison speaks of purification and he tells us that we need

to be purified of our own violence, also from misreading stories of victimization, at times

from the Gospel itself. Thus God’s perspective becomes always that of the victim. Pope

Benedict speaks of “the illusion of innocence” and the importance of the “confrontation

of the me with the living God…”389 “to find meaning with our union with Jesus amidst

tribulations and mature”390.

4.9 Crucifixion & Resurrection

The Crucifixion is of course central in the Christian faith. However, crucifixions are also

a grim reality in the ancient world. It was a method used to give the most extreme form

of punishment and it was practised by the Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Scythians,

Thracians, Celts, Britons, Germans, Numidians, Carthaginians and Romans391. It was a

punishment used to assert authority whilst maintaining law and order392, a method used to

break the will of conquered persons and control rebellious cities, a punishment mostly

used for slaves, foreigners and persons from the ‘lower classes’. It mocked the dignity of

387 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 14, 2; 3. 13; 3. 15; 3. 18. 388 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 272. 389 Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 33-34 [17 September 2011]. 390 Ibid, 37. 391 Crucifixion, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols., editor-in chief David Noel Freedman, (1992) I-1207. Crucifixion, in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospel. A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship, editors: Joel B. Green – Scot McKnight – I. Howard Marshall, England 1992, 147-148. 392 Ibid.



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the human person. In Jesus’ own time it was also a way of reminding Jews of their

servitude towards the Roman Empire393. One could argue that the crucifixion is a morbid

form of ‘art’ to murder the other, in its cruelest form. It is the ‘art’ of empires of power,

strength and death. If Cain simply murdered Abel with a blow, his descendants

developed an art for doing that. It is on this cross that Jesus subverts and transforms all.

For Christians this transformed meaning of the crucifixion becomes good news. It starts

representing Jesus’ obedience and love. It reveals God’s power and wisdom and it brings

deliverance from sin and the curse of the Law. It also brings about reconciliation and

peace. For those following Jesus it starts signifying the crucifixion of the former sinful

self and leaving the ungodly world.394 However, as mentioned earlier on, some of these

readings and interpretations of the crucifixion may pose some difficulties with regards to

the understanding of God the Fathers’ involvement in this event of Jesus’ own life. Judas

and Claudia are two key figures in helping us identify some of these difficulties.

One of the key questions that René Girard and James Alison put at rest is that God is not

in need of human blood as a ransom for humanity’s sin. Blood was not needed for

humanity’s redemption and salvation, from God’s side395. René Girard and Alison say

No to a blood-thirsty-God-understanding of the crucifixion. Their answer is that it was

humans who were in need of that kind of sacrifice and not God. Yet, sacrifice was

needed to reveal it for what it is, a diabolical murder. Jesus in the Gospel of John

describes Judas as a devil – “‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a

devil.’” (Jn 6, 70). Scripture tells us that it was the Devil who inspired Judas to betray

Jesus (cf. Jn 13, 2) and Jesus describes Judas as unclean later on (cf. Jn 13, 11). Girard

states:

393 Crucifixion, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols., editor-in chief David Noel Freedman, (1992) I-1208-I-1209. 394 Ibid, I-1210. 395 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 44-48.

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“Here the essential point is that a triple correspondence is set up between

Satan, the original homicide, and the lie. To be a son of Satan is to inherit the

lie. What lie? The lie that covers the homicide. This lie is a double

homicide, since its consequences is always another new homicide to cover up

the old one. To be a son of Satan is the same thing as being the son of those

whose have killed their prophets since the foundation of the world”396.

Jesus by willingly going to his death on the cross (cf. Jn 10, 18) subverted this dynamic

of the-violence-as-sacred from within, revealing it for what it is. Girard and Alison argue

that this is precisely the mission that was accomplished through the cross. It is the

evidence that the Gospel gives “The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I

give evidence that its ways are evil” (Jn 7, 7).

Whilst studying the passion of Jesus I was intrigued by women-men relationships, Jesus-

men relationships and Jesus-women relationships. I cannot explore these dynamics in

depth in this study. However, I cannot avoid reflecting about the possible hints that

Scripture is throwing at us about the various gender differences in terms of relationships

and recognition of the true image of God who has a human face - Jesus. Evidently, we

find a deeper understanding of Jesus and his mission amongst women. A minority of

men reach such an understanding of him; from this minority most abandon him during

that tragic moment like Peter, though he catches up later with the other apostles and

disciples. Possibly Scripture is revealing the dangers of glorified masculinity and

patriarchy which can be heavily marked with idolatry in its various subtle and hidden

forms as already pointed out in section 4.7. The passion of Jesus seems to be revealing

this as well. The Claudia-Pilate dynamic is a very interesting window for further

reflections about this reading of the story from a gender perspective397.

396 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 161. 397 Even in today’s world women are often victimized and become objects of violence in times of conflict. It must have been similar in Jesus’ own times. Possibly this is why women could empathize more with Jesus when witnessing him being victimized by their Patriarchic society. See: Say No to Sexual Violence in Conflict in Say No Unite to End Violence Against Women, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality

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Going back to violence, non-violence and the sacred, parts of the crucifixion story of

Jesus remain difficult to comprehend. One of the questions that haunted me throughout

my personal faith journey was: what was the Father’s will at Gethsemane? What kind of

sacrifice was God the Father demanding? It is the same Father who rejects Cain’s

sacrifice whilst accepting that of Abel, ending up with Cain killing Abel out of envy398.

It is the same Father who tests Abraham ‘demanding’ to sacrifice Isaac though stopping it

at the end and never wanting Isaac to be sacrificed really and truly. However, Scripture

does say that God tests the heart of those worshiping him to reveal its hidden thoughts

(cf. Jdt 8, 25-27). It is a mission that Jesus himself brings forward to its fulfillment as

Simeon, in the Gospel of Luke foretells. Those hidden thoughts are fully revealed and

exposed but Jesus pays the price for it (cf. Lk 2, 34-35).

Reflections from this study with its understanding of what kind of sacrifice is pleasing or

not to the Father and after considerations about the kind of demands he makes on

humans, I would like to suggest that the Father’s will at Gethsemane was simply to

encourage Jesus to remain faithful, loving, non-violent and forgiving till the very end,

even towards those who were going to torture and kill him. This was also the ultimate act

of purification that only Jesus could fulfill on behalf of humanity, because it was

humanity that needed it whilst requesting blood for its fulfillment. Like this he is perfect

as the Father is. Proverbs tells us, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to

the Lord than sacrifice” (Prov 21, 3).

As Girard and Alison argue, this was the final step from God’s side to set humanity free

from rivalry, fratricide and deicide and from other violent projections onto each other and

himself. But what about justice? Since I am choosing Girard’s and Alison’s

interpretation of the crucifixion then the principle of justice may become problematic

here. Previously I argued that we need to re-read justice from a John of the Cross

and the Empowerment of Women (on-line) : http://www.saynotoviolence.org/make-women-count-for-peace [25 October 2011]. 398 ERIN GALGAY, The Sacrifice of Cain in the Commentaries of Ephrem and Ambrose in Syriac Symposium, Duke University (on-line) : http://syriacsymposium.trinity.duke.edu/speakers [22 October 2011].

http://www.saynotoviolence.org/make-women-count-for-peace


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perspective of loving purification. Therefore, through this understanding we can re-read

the whole drama of Jesus’ tragic moment in life as needed to purify humanity from its

own violent dynamics believed to be sacred. The only way for Jesus to resolve these

false notions of the sacred was for him to become a victim for humanity himself. It is

God himself who walks across the dark lane opened up by humanity’s sin to reveal that

hidden lie humanity is trapped into. Pope Benedict writes “Now God himself has

removed the veil and revealed himself in the crucified Jesus as the one who lives to the

point of death. The pathway to God is open”399.

The night has its lights, and we know that the resurrection of Jesus shines eternally. It

has been a decisive historical event and yet that same light seems to be so absent whilst

Jesus was on the Cross. That light seems to be so absent in many situations of deep

suffering, war and injustice across history and in today’s world. Pope Benedict writes the

following about Jesus’ experience of abandonment on the cross,

“It is no ordinary cry of abandonment. Jesus is praying the great psalm of

suffering Israel, and so he is taking upon himself all the tribulation, not just of

Israel, but of all those in this world who suffer from God’s concealment. He

brings the world’s anguished cry at God’s absence before the heart of God

himself. He identifies himself with suffering Israel, with all who suffer under

‘God’s darkness’; he takes their cry, their anguish, all their helplessness upon

himself – and in so doing he transforms it”400.

John of the Cross also writes about these dark moments of abandonment. In The Ascent

of Mount Carmel II, 7. 9-11 he describes this moment as fulfillment of God’s justice that

at the same time achieves reconciliation and union between God and humanity. On the

other hand, one could argue that the cross is a human experience which Jesus took upon

himself. Christians give that experience meaning rather than simply rejecting it as

absurd. Pope Benedicts explains this experience in this way “…‘the absurd’ now yields

399 JOSEPH RAZTINGER, POPE BENEDICT XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, USA, 2011, 209. 400 Ibid, 214.

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its profound meaning. In the apparently senseless event, the real sense of human

journeying is truly opened up: meaning triumphs over the power of destruction and

evil”401.

John of the Cross speaks of the Father’s will as Jesus’ meat and food402. Hence, my

belief that it is very important to understand correctly what God’s will is. If we get it

wrong we end up in all sorts of problematic behaviours as we often witness in our

contemporary world. As René Girard and James Alison claim, at times Christianity itself

interpreted the crucifixion as a fulfillment of God’s need for human blood to pay for

humanity’s sins403. In Girard’s words:

“…the sacrificial interpretation of the Passion must be criticized and exposed

as a most enormous and paradoxical misunderstanding – and at the same time

as something necessary – and as the most revealing indication of mankind’s

radical incapacity to understand its own violence, even when that violence is

conveyed in the most explicit fashion”404.

If God needs that kind of sacrifice then he might need more of that, justifying more

spilling of blood. John of the Cross understands the crucifixion as necessary. His

reading of Claudia and the meaning of the crucifixion described in the Ascent II, 7, 9-11

and mentioned before, may shift him more on Baltashar’s critical reading of René Girard,

referred to in Chapter 1.11.2. And yet, I believe that we can believe in the single

benevolent God who is entirely non-violent and does not require human blood whilst

making demands for purification - for us to be entirely free and able to receive his love.

The purification process is a terrible space yet entirely without violence because it leads

us towards life and not death. It does feel otherwise though. As previously argued this

401 Ibid, 203. 402 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 13, 3-4. 403 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 249-279. 404 RENÉ GIRARD, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Research undertaken in collaboration with Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort, translated by Stephen Bann (Books II and III) Michael Metteer (Book I), London 2003, 180-181.

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kind of purification also satisfies the principles of justice and brings us face to face with

our own inner violent desires, which are exposed but there is nothing sacred about them.

Jesus himself is not in need of purification but it is here that he offers himself as victim.

He goes through this process, acting vicariously, exposing that fundamental human lie

about God. Human sacrifice is not required by God but Jesus had to be ‘sacrificed’ to

stop all human sacrifices once and for all. Jesus’ passion is the result of human violence,

but God uses this to purify humanity and detoxify it from all forms of idolatry and

violence. However, this understanding of God is still a struggle for Christians themselves

up to this day. The story ‘What would you do?’405 used by Christians to try and explain

Jesus’ tragic ending highlight this dilemma. I am personally troubled by this kind of

narrative of Jesus’ death, thus my fondness for Girard’s anthropology and Alison’s

theology. Yet, the crucifixion did happen and was necessary.

James Alison tells us that it is the Eucharist which establishes an entirely fresh dynamic

of relations, between God and humanity and between humans amongst themselves406.

The whole paschal mystery starting from the last supper reestablishes in a definitive

manner these relations. He tells us that the Eucharist is an invitation out of idolatry and

into being, because idolatry always implies violence, be it overt or covert, explicit or

subtle. The paschal mystery, this plan of salvation for humanity is the fullness of

revelation and the definitive gate out of violence into eternal life407.

Jesus sets new standards for all of humanity. His gratuitous self-giving has serious

implications for those who want to follow him. Alison points out that salvation is also a

critical counter history and story. He completely renounces the idea that God the Father

somewhat maneuvered the death-sacrifice of Jesus. Girard and Alison tell us that God is

not complicit in Jesus’ death.

405 See: WHAT WOULD YOU DO? in YouTube Broadcast Yourself (on-line) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSkWNwXA73Y&noredirect=1 [7 September 2011]. 406 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 209-279. 407 Ibid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSkWNwXA73Y&noredirect=1

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However, Alison points out at an interesting dark space that echoes with John of the

Cross’ theology. James Alison speaks of the space between the death of Jesus and his

resurrection. That space was the moment where the apostles felt disillusioned and

frightened. Alison emphasizes that it is from this space that Easter Sunday starts. Pope

Benedict writes that “The ‘Kingdom’ of Jesus was not as might have been imagined. It

began in that hour, and of this ‘Kingdom’ there will be no end.”408 John of the Cross

assures us of our own resurrection after the crossing amidst the dark valley. Alison tells

us that Jesus made death an empty threat, because love is stronger and lives beyond it.

The resurrection gives us the possibility of re-reading all human stories, subverting them

from within through love. It is a re-reading that gives us back human victims and invites

persecutors to become penitent convertants. Pope Benedict writes, “…it was the fact

themselves, at first unintelligible, that paved the way towards a fresh understanding of

Scripture”409.

4.10 Non-Violence and Forgiveness

One of the main questions that this dissertation is trying to answer is, if violence is

present in God or not. I am defending Alison’s position that God is entirely non-violent.

In previous paragraphs I proposed the idea that what may seem as violence is in actual

fact loving purification. Violence which brings about harm and destruction is only found

on the human side - a result of sin. Sin is the result of humanity turning away from the

living God and worshipping all sorts of other things, including oneself.

Jesus is the non-violent figure par excellence. For those of us who believe that he is God

this has very serious implications. If we want to seriously follow him we are bound by

this way of living. For us Jesus is the image of God, the fullness of revelation and this

revelation comes to us in purely and totally non-violent ways, though in some of Jesus’ 408 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 50 [18 September 2011]. 409 JOSEPH RAZTINGER, POPE BENEDICT XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, USA, 2011, 203.



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own words, we do find expressions of anger (cf. Mt 21, 12-13) or words which make us

very uncomfortable (cf. Mt 22, 11-14). He also acknowledges his power and potential to

use it if he wants to (cf. Mt 26, 53). Jesus is not a teddy bear either.

René Girard tells us that violence is always contagious and there is no good violence410.

Whilst writing this Chapter violence irrupted in Libya, it pushes one into a lot of re-

thinking and reflection with regards to violence and its use. If compared to the violence

in Syria, which is perpetrated by the establishment and those in power over their people

we can see that it is also a different kind of thing. Maybe the Libya and Syria

comparison on the use of violence can help us better grasp violent episodes we find in

Scripture. If both are evil, we surely tend to agree that one is a lesser evil than the other.

The violence used to overthrow a dictator who is oppressing his people is different from

the use of violence used by a dictator to further oppress and savagely silence its own

people. Yet, Girard keeps on warning us that peace brought about by the use of violence

remains a dangerous kind of peace411. As the Arab Spring is showing us, Dictators can

be overthrown but resolution of conflict and violence does not come easy. In the Old

Testament we find a lot of the former kind of violence, the story of Judith being a lucid

example of that. It is a kind of violence which appears to be ridiculous and impossible to

achieve its mission; a widow overthrowing a whole army which terrified peoples and

nations. And yet for the follower of the living God this was possible (cf. Jdt 16, 1-25).

Definitely, the Old Testament shows us that the weak and downtrodden have God on

their side and God supports their actions. God is always on the side of the victim, the

oppressed and the persecuted. He also lifts up those who are downtrodden but with

conditions. When these are in power they are to behave differently and need to be careful

not to become oppressors themselves. If they do, God abandons them412.

410 RENÉ GIRARD, Violence and the Sacred, translated by Patrick Gregory, London 2005, 28-33. 411 ADAM ERICKSEN, The Death of Osama Bin Laden: Toward Healing (2011), in The Raven Foundation (on-line) : http://www.ravenfoundation.org/blogs/raven-views-the-news/the-death-of-osama-bin-laden-toward-healing [2 October 2011]. 412 MEV PULEO, The Struggle is One. Voices and Visions of Liberation, foreword by Robert McAfee Brown, New York 1994, 163-183.

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However, in the New Testament Jesus becomes the victim and opens up a new way. If

the Old Testament helps people reach a certain level of just societal organization, Jesus

takes that accomplishment to a completely different plane. Jesus is not only a figure of

non-violence he also offers forgiveness to those who are putting him to death and those

who loved him but abandoned him.

Jesus’ death and resurrection fully reveal the horror that envy and hatred bring about. We

read about murder, the confusion it brings about and fleeing of Jesus’ friends and

followers. Amidst all of this, Jesus remains non-violent and forgiving (cf. Mt 26, 52).

James Alison emphasizes the fact that Jesus is completely not run by that kind of

dynamic, only some woman and the beloved disciple are able to stand with him at the

Cross. Violence breaks out but Jesus’ crucifixion shows us that there is no divine quality

about it, it is all a human-evil game. Those who planned the killing of Jesus believed

they were worshiping the living God by doing so. Scripture tells us that it was not so and

in reality envy was ruling their hearts (cf. Mt 27, 18). Like Adam, Eve and Cain, they

become an image of Satan rather than that of God. Like Abel, Jesus was killed.

Scripture describes his “sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than that of Abel.”

(Heb 12, 24), because instead of vindication it “announces the inauguration of an entire

era of grace and reconciliation.”413 The murder of Stephen shows us that unfortunately it

will take time for humanity to accept the liberation that Jesus’ offers humanity. People

remain trapped in dynamics that victimize others, turning brothers and sisters into

scapegoats - believing there is something sacred and pleasing to God in such behaviour,

sadly up to this very day. However, the sacredness about this kind of behaviour has

become forever suspect414. The murder of Stephen reconfirms this for us.

James stresses another point alongside non-violence. He emphasizes that when Jesus was

given back to us, he came back in forgiveness and not in vengeance415. It is this Jesus

413 Abel, in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, editors: T. Desmond Alexander – David W. Baker, USA 2003, 5. 414 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 9-63; 186-265. 415 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, foreword by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 26-27; 43-45; 94-113.

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story which carries powerful meaning and revelation and that forged and shaped history.

It still has much work to do, presently and for future generations. Unfortunately

throughout history Christians have also persecuted and victimized each other and others.

I believe that Girard’s anthropology, Alison’s theology and John of the Cross’ call for

purification can help build bridges between Christians themselves and with contemporary

post-modern, post-Christian western world. I believe these offer interesting opportunities

for Catholic tradition to further dialogue with our contemporary society.

Back to non-violence, if we truly believe that Jesus is God; that in him there are no more

truths and that he is the fullness of revelation, his demand to be like him - to be perfect

like the Father, has profound implications for his followers. These implications are

amongst others to take a non-violent path in life and become forgiving. John of the Cross

points in this direction as well. The other serious implication that is also true about God

is the need for purification of the human person in relation to the living God. The

experience of this relationship-journey is that of night and darkness which John of the

Cross describes. This is a deeply disconcerting experience for the person going through

it. However, it is through such an experience that we can become loving, non-violent,

forgiving and inclusive. We have to walk through the dark night not because God is

violent but because our own inner violence is exposed when the soul encounters the

eternal love of God - that same love that created us, which brought us into being and

holds us through the darkness. This encounter becomes a painful one till it lasts.

The idea to kill for peace and order has no place in Christian understanding. Some

situations may demand the use of force to protect those who are weak, yet the use of

violence is always suspect through Girard’s perspective. Alison’s theology shows us

how that same cross used by the ancient world to symbolize law, order and submission,

through Jesus’ death and resurrection becomes a universal symbol for liberation,

salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, life, resurrection and hope. Jesus set his

JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 65-68; 132; 177-178; 185-189. JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 210, 235-236.

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own criteria for humans to become true worshippers of the living God - to become non-

idolatrous, upsetting false peace and order brought about by the sacred lie. In this light

Jesus becomes for us the forgiving-human-victim who truly liberates us. It is this loving

forgiveness which becomes for humanity the foundation of a new civilization – the new

Jerusalem which is not like the foundation that Cain established for humanity through

murder416. Therefore, Alison reminds us that to be non-idolatrous is to refrain from

creating victim created circles, not to be run by violence and to forgive those who still

function in this violent way. However, John of the Cross explains how getting to this

state of being involves a terrible and painful process of purification that feels like a

journey in darkness across the night.

4.13 The Demands of Love

Whilst love emerged as a dominant theme in this study, its demands emerged as the other

equally powerful theme - what I am calling the demands of love. I am using this term to

refer to the cost that such demands of love make on the human person. This study shows

that love is the meaning of faith and life, but it makes demands. These have serious

implications on the human person trying to follow the Jesus’ way. In the Old Testament

we find these implications of love also in the powerful force of God who defends and

liberates the poor and oppressed. The demands of this love at times brings this strength

of God into direct struggle and conflict with oppressors. It is the same dynamic that Our

Lady praises in her Magnificat as mentioned earlier on. Isn’t this the same force which

resurrects Jesus Christ? And yet, God the liberator is also the God who leads us into the

desert and across the dark raven with the promise of reaching the land of milk and

honey417.

416 JAMES ALISON, Living in the End Times. The Last Things Re-Imagined, London 1997, 133-137. 417 Ex 3, 17; Ps 23, 4.

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Jesus adds a fresh dimension to this force of love which struggles with the oppressor. In

Jesus we find forgiveness for those who have killed him which becomes another demand

of his. The force of God the liberator is now embedded in Jesus’ non-violence and

forgiveness, yet none of the other demands are absent. As Jesus himself proclaims, he

came to change nothing of the Law but only to fulfill it (cf. Mt 5, 17). However, through

his passion and resurrection Jesus opens up new possibilities for healing and conversion

even to persecutors, murderers and oppressors themselves. This demand of love has

serious implications for Jesus-God himself. It is because of his loving relationship with

humanity that he became man and through this relationship he is also changed for ever.

Jesus as man has his own story, a story that changed all of humanity and its history, it

also changed Jesus himself. The marks of the crucifixion, remain in his body. We gaze

at him whom we crucified (cf. Zech 12, 10; 13, 1; Jn 19, 37; Rev 1, 7). Pope Benedict

writes “Gazing upon the Pierced One and suffering with him have now become a fount of

purification. The transforming power of Jesus’ Passion has begun”418.

It is only because Jesus is in an intimate relationship with humanity that he was touched

in this violent way. Had he kept his distance, it would have never happened. It is love

that brings us into this close and intimate proximity, which is a dangerous one. Jesus fills

this danger with hope and overcomes it through his death and resurrection.

The demand of this love is to give, sometimes even beyond one’s own means. Scripture

shows us the widow in Elijah’s story able to do this (cf. 1 Kings 17, 12-16). In his own

life Jesus points at another widow who was able to make this kind of offering (cf. Mk 12,

41-44). True worship is to respond to Jesus’ demands; ethnicity, status or religious

belonging are secondary. Jesus opens up for us the possibility to enter into an intimate

loving relationship with God through him, and yet this intimacy has serious implications.

True and profound charity becomes the point of judgment - this charity has a particular

shape and demands of its own; its full expression is found in our relations to the poor, the

weak and marginalized of society. Such charity can come about if we are attentive to

418 JOSEPH RAZTINGER, POPE BENEDICT XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, USA, 2011, 220.

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God and center our own eyes on him. This is the real cult for the living God which

brings about liberty of spirit, clarity of reason, rest, tranquility, peaceful confidence in

God, quietude and rest as John of the Cross says419. The living God does not lead us into

misery yet its centre is humility. It also takes courage and constancy to remain on this

path420.

Alison describes this demand of love - this true cult, as not being run by violence in our

relations to God and others, even with those who victimize us. James Alison tells us that

divine paternity is recast in a fraternal shape which is familiar to us421. It is also a matter

of believing that God has enough abundant love for each and everyone of us. It is

knowing that the Creator is holding and sustaining the planet we live in with love. The

washing of the disciples feet at the last supper (cf. Jn 13, 4-15) embody these demands of

love which I am attempting to describe. Jesus tells us that we are blessed if we know and

do these things (cf. Jn 13, 17).

Jesus did not simply offer humanity concepts about love but lived love. He lived out the

Kingdom he came to proclaim. We are invited to follow him in this way; to become like

him who is like the Father, to live out this Kingdom in the here and now through our

flesh, soul and relationships, through friendship. The love that the mystics talk about is

available for each and every human person but it is a love that comes at a cost. Love

purifies us and leads us into deserts and across dark nights as described earlier on. It also

demands that we fulfill Jesus’ commands yet his command is a simple one; to love God

with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love our neighbour as ourselves (cf.

Lk 10, 27) even if our neighbour is our own enemy. John of the Cross describes this love

as the living flame of love422. Pope Benedicts tells us “Some recent theologians are of the

419 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, 2. 27, 6. 420 Ibid, 1. 13, 11-13. 421 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 115-138. 422 The Living Flame of Love, 1. 1-36.

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opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour.

The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement”423.

The True image of God is that God is Love. And the only demand that God makes is

Love. That Love is demanding but that is what constitutes true worship.

4.15 Conclusion

If one had to summarize this study one could argue that Christianity teaches us that only

gestures of love have substance and are worthy of remembrance. James Alison, Scripture

and John of the Cross highlight love as always being relational and God’s love is the life-

force that animates the whole planet. They show us that the meaning of prayer is to

detoxify ourselves from disordered attachments, appetites and violent ways of relating,

making space within ourselves for that loving inflow of God. God, who is Trinity is also

our brother and companion. Jesus is our delightful soaring and resurrected-forgiving-

victim. Jesus through his life, death and resurrection opened up for us new ways and

possibilities of relating. Pentecost un-tells, re-tells, re-reads and re-interprets our life

story and history. Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross show how the Christian

journey is a path through which we are cleaned of all forms of idol worship, be they

external or internal. Through this process we find out that the true cult is a simple one.

True worship does not flatter egos, neither that of God nor of the human person. True

worship guides us out of our prisons, transforming us into temples, open to receive God

who is communion and love. The true temple is forged not only within the individual

person but within inter-individual relationships424, between people wherever they are.

This is the true human image of the living God.

423 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 47 [17 September 2011]. 424 JAMES ALISON, Broken Hearts and New Creations. Intimations of a Great Reversal, London 2010, 17-175; 209-279.



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In a definitive way, Jesus restores for us what was originally lost through sin, fraternal

love and the sharing of life. Jesus through his own life gives a definitive answer to Cain’s

question, “am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4, 9). Jesus’ answer is a definitive and final

Yes.

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Conclusion

5.1 Overview

In Chapters One, Two and Three idolatry was explored in its various dimensions: James

Alison uncovers idolatry to be anything that leads to the exclusion or expulsion of the

other whilst believing that to do so is pleasing to God. Scripture shows us that

worshipping something or someone else apart from the living God or worshipping the

law and tradition itself can be problematic; those worshippers miss the true and living

God whilst believing they are pleasing him. John of the Cross writes about attachments

even to good things including spirituality and religious ceremonies themselves as

becoming forms of idolatry. All texts point at love as the fruit of a real relationship with

the living God and of true worship. When violence, in all of its forms is present, it is the

result of idolatry even if this is performed by a worshipper of the true and living God.

Violence, exclusions and expulsions lead us away from the true living God and his

authentic desires. Actually it is behaviour that he abhors. At times, Christianity

describes the law itself as a curse because it can impose itself over and above the human

person and can be used to murder the other (cf. Gal 3, 10-14). Jesus purifies humanity

from its own violent ways which are believed to be sacred. This study shows that there is

nothing sacred about violence. When violence is present it is good to show suspicion.

Jesus is the figure who upsets false peace and order (cf. Mt 10, 35-39), because it is

founded in victimization and the murder of another human being. Moreover it is

covered-up and presented as a divine request (cf. Jn 11, 50; 18, 14). The story of Jesus

reveals that human relationships can be a dangerous and violent thing but Jesus purifies

these relationships from violence. Through his blood he brings intimacy back to its

primordial beauty, he transforms fratricide back to fraternal love. Through the paschal

mystery Jesus re-establishes a civilization of love, as it was meant to be in Eden. Jesus

reveals to us that God is love and his demands for humanity is to love. It is through this

love that he offers us universal friendship as a gift (cf. Jn 15, 15). As he brought us into

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friendship with himself we are to offer friendship to one another, this is his love and his

demand. This loving friendship needs to be especially extended to those who are poor,

marginalized, strangers and even to our own enemy. It is the way to humanize the other

and through that our own self is humanized. However, to get to this stage, the human

person needs to go through a process of purification as Chapter Four indicates.

Texts highlight how God is beyond our imagination and massively prior to us. He brings

us into a story which is beyond our own dreams. However, God’s love is also

experienced as darkness because it also involves painful purification. This purification is

not violent punishment but rather loving correction that opens up the person for more

beauty, love, joy and wisdom. However, this same love makes its own demands on the

follower of Jesus in his or her relations to God and neighbour, especially with regards to

those who are vulnerable and outcast. The night journey does feel like a collapse of all

that is familiar but it is this process that brings about the necessary transformation that all

texts point towards and which the Carmelite tradition cultivates425.

God-human relationships are possible because of a mutual desire for each other. This

mutual desire crosses all frontiers. All texts tell us that prayer is key for the fulfillment of

this desire for love, which takes the person on a journey of transformation. Prayer is the

entry point and our companion whilst crossing the dark path. It is a journey which finds

its fulfillment in true worship, at the feet of the resurrected Jesus Christ on that glorious

dawn. Teresa of Avila says that “…in this life there could be no greater good than the

practice of prayer426”.

425 Teresa writes about friendship in her various books but she also writes about the struggle of this friendship and the implications of that upon the follower of Jesus in friendship with him. See: The book of her life 8. 3. Pope Benedict XVI on his way to Benin shared reflections about the implications and cost of Jesus’ demand for fraternal love. See: Africa’s Woes are Because Fraternity is Hard Work, says Pope. Easy to talk about Selflessness, Difficult to Live it (2011), in Zenit. The World Seen from Rome (on-line) : http://www.zenit.org/article-33857?l=english [20 November 2011]. Interview of the Holy Father Benedict XVI with the journalists during the flight to Benin. Apostolic Journey to Benin 18-20 November 2011. Papal Flight Friday, 18 November 2011, in The Holy See (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20111118_incontro-giornalisti_en.html [20 November 2011]. 426 The Book of her life, 7. 10.

http://www.zenit.org/article-33857?l=english

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20111118_incontro-giornalisti_en.html%20%5b20

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Actively loving one’s own brother and sister and sharing of life are the true cult and

worship of the living God, the rest is frivolous idolatry which according to St. Paul has

demonic undertones (cf. 1 Cor 10, 14-22). This love cannot be held either within an

ethnic group, Church, region or country either - its demands are universal. It is this

universal love that is the temple of Jesus Christ and God’s desire. In the message of

Jesus we find that the true cult makes inclusion its prerogative. The Christian way is a

simple one: God is reached through and within our relationships and not in spite of them.

Reverend Paul Woodrum states: "Of all the gifts Aelred has given the Church, the one

most uniquely his is the joyous affirmation that we move toward God in and through our

relationships with other people, not apart from or in spite of them"427. Jesus Christ

establishes a new civilization within his own body; a deep, loving, non-violent society

rooted in inclusion, relationships founded in universal fraternal love and forgiveness

made possible through trusting in God’s own providential and overabundant love.

Christian hope can only be cultivated from this place by the followers of Jesus Christ.

Texts studied were also rich in anthropological wisdom. They reveal that we are created

for each other, to share life and enjoy fraternal love. It is because of sin that relationships

became a dangerous affair. Jesus carries within his own body the marks of this danger

but his wounds are transformed into healing power, opening up possibilities for

reconciliation and life428. The paschal mystery opens up the way for fraternal love,

universal friendship429 as discussed before. Humanity is created in this particular image

of God - Trinitarian love which is present within friendships and loving relationships and

427 PAUL WOODRUM, Saint Aelred – the Patron Saint of Integrity in Sacred Pauses. Meditation and Prayers for Life’s Spiritual Highway (on-line) : http://sacredpauses.com/saint-aelred-the-patron-saint-of-integrity/ [22 November 2011]. Aelred of Rievaulx. The Way of Friendship, selected spiritual writings, edited by M. Basil Pennington, New York 2001, 55-96. 428 Crosier Spirituality focuses on the Spirituality of the Cross as life giving through forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. See: Spirituality of the Cross in Crosier Fathers and Brothers. Living Together for God Alone (on-line) : https://www.crosier.org/default.cfm?pid=1.30.2.4 [22 November 2011]. 429 Friendship features powerfully in Teresa’s writings, as the Christian way towards God and neighbour. See: Meditations on the Song of Songs, 2. 16; 3. 15; The Book of Her Life, 8. 5.

http://sacredpauses.com/saint-aelred-the-patron-saint-of-integrity/


https://www.crosier.org/default.cfm?pid=1.30.2.4

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needs to be also expressed towards one’s own enemies. This is the temple and the

meaning of life and faith430.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church speaks of the civilisation of

love431, of God’s plan of brotherhood432 and friendship433. The compendium expands on

humans’ equal dignity434 and the social nature of human beings435. The way of love436,

justice437 and dialogue438 is elaborated upon. It is this civilization of love that is

Christianity’s good news to the world and all the texts studied here point it out.

5.2 Icon

“To come to know God—the true God—means to receive hope”439.

Throughout this study I discussed the notion of God as always beyond our grasp. I

discussed John of the Cross’ understanding of reaching God through nothingness

referring to the idea that any image of God may become problematic on our spiritual

journey. On the other hand, a number of images of God did emerge through the study of

the various texts, hence the reason why I am writing and calling this section Icon.

Definitely, Jesus is the icon for us. Pope Benedict tells us “God is the foundation of

hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end,

each one of us and humanity in its entirety…his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved

430 In her writings Teresa reflects about the mystery of the Trinity, as three distinct persons, yet of one will, power and dominion - of one essence. See: Spiritual Testimonies, 13. 1-5; 29. 1-3; 42. 1. 431 PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE & PEACE, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, London 2004, 293. 432 Ibid, 390. 433 Ibid, 199; 208; 384; 390-392. 434 Ibid, 144-148. 435 Ibid, 149-154. 436 Ibid, 204-208. 437 Ibid, 492-493. 438 Ibid, 534-537. 439 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 3 [17 September 2011].



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and wherever his love reaches us.”440 John of the Cross says that Jesus is our entire

locution, response, vision, revelation, word spoken and answered, manifested and

revealed441. Jesus himself is the image of the unseen Father. In the first Chapter of the

Gospel of John we find “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close

to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (John 1, 18).

Scripture gives us a number of images of the living God. At times our own experiences

in life and prayer offer us a glimpse of these, as attested by the mystics. As humans we

are in need of these images because of our own limitations and weakness but also

because of our own desire for God. I want to highlight a few of these images that

emerged during this study. One of these images is Do Not Kill, also a demand found

within the ten commandments. However, I would like to present this as an image of God,

as a desire of his heart expressed in different ways and expressions. Various Scripture

stories present this image of God, which finds its full expression and fulfillment in Jesus.

Another image I want to present is Joy. Pope Benedict in Spe Salvi writes, ‘“Be of good

cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn16:33). “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither

let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27)’442. Joy is not only a deep emotion but also the fulfillment

of desire when the human person encounters the living God - like the widow in Elijah’s

story, or the women when meeting the resurrected Jesus. On the other hand, Sheer

Silence is also another icon of this God who seduces us but who also leads us through

dark paths. The night journey that Elijah and John of the Cross experience, witness this.

Having said that, at dawn we encounter him again afresh. The Crucified Jesus-God is an

icon we are used to, but I am afraid that it is an image that lost its meaning and

significance for many, sometimes for believers themselves. Christ on the cross is the

most marvelous work surpassing all according to John of the Cross. He describes this

440 Ibid, 31. 441 The Ascent of Mt. Carmel 2. 22, 5. 442 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 50 [17 September 2011].



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work of Jesus on the cross as one of reconciliation and union443. James Alison presents

the crucifix as an icon of liberation from violence, murder, envy, rivalry and dynamics of

victimization444. The symbol used by empires to assert their dominion through

murderous oppression becomes for Christians the symbol of life. The establishment of a

new civilization centered around the one who was poor, weak, marginalized and

oppressed yet was the Son of God. Together with this image we need to have The

Resurrection as its twin icon. The final and definitive image of Jesus that reveals who

God the Father is, where Jesus is given back to humanity in forgiveness. This is the

image of the triumph of life, love, light and hope.

Gratuitous Love is another icon I want to present. James Alison forges this icon for us in

many of his writings often describing this divine love as ever vivacious, living and

effervescent445. Love, grace and beauty are other traditional description of this divine

love often found in John of the Cross’ writings. Another very important image of God

which emerged from this study is that of God as Always On The Side Of Victims. Jesus

became ‘that’ victim himself, to show us the way out of our morbid ways of resolving

violence, believing it is the sacred way. Our Lady’s Magnificat colours this image. I

want to present Claudia, Pilate’s wife, as another facet to this image. Claudia emerges

from this study as a wise figure but also as a woman who was possibly oppressed. She

was misunderstood and not listened to during the Jesus trial. Claudia reminds us that

God is always on the side of those who are oppressed no matter who or what they are.

He also communicates with those he chooses to do so, irrespective of ethnicity or

religious belonging, like the pagan Roman in Acts 10.

Another icon which strongly emerges from this study and which James Alison and John

of the Cross forge for us is that of God as The Master of Suspicion especially when

violence is somewhat involved and even more so when law, tradition and power are used

to justify such murder. John of the Cross does not use this kind of terminology in his

443 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 2. 7, 5-13. 444 JAMES ALISON, Knowing Jesus, forward by Rowan Williams, London 1998, 21-23. 445 JAMES ALISON, Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay, New York 2001, 86-104.

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writings but does point in this direction as well, cautioning us about false forms of

spiritualities and religious ceremonies themselves446.

Texts studied for the purposes of this study highlighted some images of God, but they

also pointed at images of Satan. These are not only false images of God but also its

opposite. These other images are those of Death, Violence and Murder. Unfortunately in

our contemporary world we are bombarded by these images, now more easily available

and widely distributed through the social media. The short documentary Unwatchable447

gives a very clear picture of what an image of Satan looks like. It is a reality present in

many countries around the globe. Similar dynamics also present in their subtle and

hidden forms as well, all equally deadly. Sadly, these violent images of Satan are at

times spread disguised as images of God especially by religious fundamentalist groups.

It is hard for humanity to believe that God has no violence within him, that he does not

want the killing of fellow human beings and that in such killings anything of the real

sacred is never present. To let go of violent readings of God makes humanity face its

own internal violence - envious and rival desires, present within families, communities,

institutions and societies. Facing our inner corrupted and violent desires is like a journey

across the night and darkness but only through this journey can we become perfect like

the Father. It is the way that Jesus himself opened and modeled for us. After crossing

this journey, like Jesus and in Jesus we become multipliers of that new civilization that he

initiated; societies founded in inclusive fraternal love and forgiveness rather than

expulsions and murder.

446 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3. 35; 3. 36; 3. 37; 3. 38; 3. 39; 3. 40; 3. 41; 3. 42; 3. 43; 3. 44; 3. 45. 447 TESS MITCHELL - MARC HAWKER, Unwatchable (on-line) : http://www.unwatchable.cc/thefilm/ [3 October 2011].

http://www.unwatchable.cc/thefilm/

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5.3 A Trinitarian Image of God

“As Feuerbach himself succinctly put it, the secret of theology had finally been shown to

be anthropology”448.

Though the texts studied did not particularly tackle the Catholic understanding of God as

Trinity I wanted to particularly reflect on this image of God as I feel that it has also

strongly emerged through this study. Reflections upon this study helped me realize that

the living God only makes sense as the living Trinity. Of course such a notion is not a

novel thought and surely no discovery. However, only through this study has this notion

became deeply meaningful for myself. Trinitarian love emerged for me as the only form

of Godly love that makes sense. It is the love that Jesus fully reveals to us through his

life and teachings. It is the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. The Old

Testament was already pointing towards it. It is Scripture itself that offers us this

Trinitarian image of God. Three distinct persons yet One and in a harmonious

relationship with each other and their creation. The idea of relationship, how we live

these relationships and God’s presence within our relationships, reflect for me something

of this Trinitarian love of God.

God is love and God is Trinitarian; love is Trinitarian. Scripture gives us this image of

God and Jesus fully reveals it. Texts studied tell us that humanity is made in the image of

God and therefore we are created in this particular image of love. Our fullness of

existence is found in loving relationships that are dynamic. A love that needs to be

embedded within a community - be it the family, intimate friendships, marriage or other

forms of groups. We are created for each other - for relationships and this is the image of

God. We are bound by love in mysterious ways beyond our comprehension. We are

called to further cultivate love between ourselves with all of its demands.

448 PATRICK GARDINER, Kierkegaard. A Very Short Introduction, New York 2002, 34.

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5.4 The Meaning of Life, the Meaning of Faith

One central theme that powerfully emerged in this study is fraternal love. Worship

offered to the living God is meant to lead us towards growth in love towards our brothers

and sisters; to grow in our ability to show care, kindness, compassion and tender love.

Anything else is false worship. Moving away from the living God actually leads one

brother to murdering the other. At times, humans kill each other believing they are

serving God by doing so (cf. Jn 16, 2-4). This is a result of idolatry as all texts show.

Real Christian love is inclusive and forgiving. Fraternal love is the Kiss of Peace449. The

Roman Catholic Church in its tradition presents this love as the highest form of love -

agape450. Though agape may appear unattractive since its meaning became to be only

understood in philosophical terms rather than in its Christian fullness of its

understanding, Jesus’ agape is fully embodied, lived in and through relationships with

others. It is an agape that is not afraid of desire, neither is it in rivalry with eros, but

befriends it451.

As texts studied point out, it is Jesus himself who gives us this fraternal love and models

it for us (cf. Mt 28, 20). Our relationships with God and neighbour are to be filled with

intimacy and tenderness; through these dynamics we can achieve a harmonious

relationship with the self. God is the goal of every human being, because in this

relationship we find our liberation and fulfillment of desire; to be able to love others as

we desire to love them, yet often find ourselves limited to do so. It is this kind of love

that expresses John’s ‘todo’452, that he so fondly mentions. Meaning, fullness and

satisfaction are to be found in Jesus’ love; in his presence and loving awareness which we

are to live-out through our relationships with our own brothers and sisters, strangers and

449 Teresa of Avila elaborates upon the spirituality of friendship, also with Jesus Christ and describes this as the Kiss of Peace. See: Meditations on the Song of Songs, 1. 10; 3, 15. 450 POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), (25 December 2005), India 2006, 3-8. 451 Ibid, 9-18. 452 John of the Cross says, “This is how we recognize persons who truly love God: if they are content with nothing less than God.” See: The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1, 14.

164

enemies. It is this love that gives meaning to our existence. It is this love that the early

Church tried to embody after Jesus’ resurrection.

James Alison, Scripture and John of the Cross show us that prayer is key to achieve this

state of love. We are to become living temples, cultivating interior recollection of the

soul. The narrow gate and dark night journey lead us towards this freedom for love.

Equanimity is given to us through this loving awareness. Once the dark night is over and

the person enters through the narrow gate, the soul tastes eternal freedom. Then, the

person’s job is to cultivate Christian hope in this world, a world that seems to be going

through its own dark night.

When this meaning of life is found, the human person may realize that he or she hated

others or was hated by others without cause. As humans we are dependent upon each

other - we are created in this way. Jesus knows and respects this human condition. He

shows humanity the way - to love one another as he loved us (cf. Jn 13, 34-35; 15, 9-17).

Therefore, the meaning of life is this love. It is this friendship which helps us become

less inclined to judge and divided amongst ourselves. It empowers us to try and re-build

our lives and our societies anew based on fraternal love, trusting in the overabundant love

which our Creator has for all of his creation. As James Alison points out, Jesus sets us

free from an all-against-one kind of peace. Through his death and resurrection he

recovers for us this lost fraternity, that primordial peace of the Creator453. Through Jesus

we can become children of light (cf. Jn 12, 36).

453 JAMES ALISON, The Joy of Being Wrong. Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, foreword by Sebastian Moore, New York 1998, 237-265.

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5.5 Chastity

During this dissertation non-violence, forgiveness and inclusion were often discussed and

presented as the foundations of Jesus’ new civilization – a civilization where life is

shared and the possibilities for fraternal love are created and experienced. It is a society

of inclusion where there are no murders, exclusions, victimizations or scapegoat

mechanisms. There is no more darkness either (cf. Rev 21, 1-22; 22, 1-21). The human

person comes first and anything else, including spirituality and religion are present to

serve the well-being of the human family, to help the human family grow in love towards

their Creator and one another. I personally want to link this Christian understanding of

the non-violent and forgiving approach to the understanding of chastity. If we re-read

chastity in light of this non-violent way that Jesus lives and proposes, to be like the

Father, we might discover fresh dimensions to its value. Jesus’ non-violence is not only

on the level of actions but also present within all of his relations. He expresses this non-

violence in each and every encounter with the other. He is non-violent emotionally,

psychologically, intellectually and spiritually. Though he also expresses anger at times

especially with those who persecute and oppress others, especially if this is done in the

name of God. The Jewish word anawim454 expresses this dimension of chastity which I

am attempting to describe. Reverence is another word that can be used to describe this

particular way of relating to one another.

The Carmelite tradition gives much value to chastity. In the Liturgy of the Hours, we

find numerous references to chastity and virginity as a condition for one’s own ability to

climb the mountain. Virginity is linked to clean hands and a pure heart455. These

references seem to imply that one’s own hands and heart are not to be stained with the

blood of violence and murder. In Carmel, virginity is associated with glory and beauty,

with Mary’s Immaculate Conception. It is also associated with Mary being untarnished 454 The biblical word Anawim refers to the poor, to those who cannot rely on their own strength but rely in utter confidence in God, the meek, the lowly, the sick, the downtrodden, the widows and the orphans. See: RAYMOND E. BROWN, S. S., The Birth of the Messiah. A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, New Updated Edition, New York 1999, 350-355. 455 CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL, O.CARM, A Loving Presence: Mary and Carmel. A Study of the Marian Heritage of the Order, Melbourne Australia 2000, 48-50.

166

and sinless. In Carmel, virginity means openness to God, offering him oneself totally and

not holding anything back456. For instance, in the Institution of the First Monks we find

that Carmelites are to offer God a holy and pure heart, free from all stain of sin.457

It is my personal opinion that the sex element in our understanding of virginity and

chastity has been overemphasized, even though sex is part of it as explained in previous

chapters. What I want to propose here is that the Carmelites’ understanding of chastity

may also enrich Alison’s theological notions and the dialogue with Scripture and John of

the Cross’ in this study. This study highlights the fact that the Christian way is to arrive

to that place where the human person, through the experiences of the dark-night-journey

is free to relate to God, the other and self through non-violence, forgiveness, inclusion

and reverence. This way has serious implications for all of our relationships, including

those which are not sexual. Such an understanding of chastity is a much broader

understanding of it than the simple understanding of having or not having sex before and

after marriage or as a religious or single person.

The Carmelites understanding of virginity as being open to God can be a beautiful

backdrop to this proposal of understanding chastity - as a way of life that does not violate

the other: emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, spiritually and of course also

sexually. It also implies forgiving those who do, whilst calling them to conversion at the

same time. It seems to me that this is the chastity that the Gospel calls us to live in our

Christian lives. It is this chastity that this study points at.

Jesus has re-opened for humanity this chaste way of fraternal love. Mary embodies this

loving, non-violent, inclusive and forgiving civilization. With Jesus she becomes like

him – a foundation of it. Chastity becomes a way of relating to God, others and self free

from rivalry, envious desire and hidden, subtly violent sentiments. Wilfred McGreal says

that celibacy in fact is more about seeking the Kingdom as a primary value rather than

456 Ibid. 457 PETER SLATTERY, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality, New York 1991 42. PAUL CHANDLER, O.CARM, Carmelite Spirituality. The Book of the First Monks (ca. 1370), Notes, 2009.

167

denying relationships458. It is the way of harmony between the Creator and all of his

creation.

5.6 A Way Forward

I personally believe that tradition and contemporary theologies and spiritualities need not

clash. Dialogue enriches both. Carmelite spirituality and the whole Christian tradition

with its ancient Jewish roots need not be afraid of today’s post-modern and post-Christian

worlds. One may find that there are good and beautiful things on both sides, but both

need each other to cross-fertilize and enrich one another. The way forward is towards a

future that respects the great developments of human civilization and culture. One needs

to acknowledge that many of these achievements are the offspring of those same ancient

traditions themselves. On the other hand human achievements are always limited and

risk error. Today’s post-modern world may also need to learn to respect and appreciate

traditions; appreciating that there is much beauty, goodness and wisdom there too.

Respectful dialogue is one way of making fraternal love and sharing of life possible. It is

through this kind of friendship that further growth can happen which can make this planet

a less violent place and bring about much effervescent hope that our society requires.

At times Christians themselves are so divided amongst one another, forgetting that it is

the same resurrected-victim given back to us in forgiveness that is our centre and whose

message is a simple one, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and

with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment.

And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two

commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Mt 22, 37-40). At other times

Christians completely forget other Christians entirely, and the above principle seems not

to hold the same weight with regards to some other Christians, for instance those living in

Iraq or Sudan and in many other countries, some of them knocking at our doors for help

and asylum. Of course this statement does not exclude extending this same friendship 458 WILFRID MC GREAL O.CARM, At the Fountain of Elijah. The CarmeliteTradition, New York 1999, 42.

168

and fraternal love towards those of other faiths and religions or of no religious affiliation

at all, also knocking at our doors for help.

5.7 Final Comments

Working on this dissertation turned out to be very laborious work. Whilst studying and

writing this dissertation my own mother passed away. The notions and experiences of

the dark night and Jesus’ resurrection took a different meaning for me because of this

experience and the whole bereavement process. What was most striking during this

process was the actual experience of destroying idols which became a very personal and

experiential one for me. I had to confront myself, my own ideas, beliefs, thoughts,

understandings, experiences and images with those which the various texts presented or

challenged. Many of these images and experiences had to go through a process of

shedding whilst others became clarified through contact with the various texts studied.

Moreover, thanks to the various conversations I had about this study I came to realize that

the process to write this work might be described as parallel to the process an

iconographer goes through to forge an icon – laborious internal and external work to try

and seek and find a true image. Thanks to this study I personally feel that through this

process I may have found some of those images, some of those fine pearls that Jesus talks

about (cf. Mt 13, 45) whilst digging for that hidden treasure (cf. Mt 13, 44). Working on

this study helped me appreciate one of the gifts that John of the Cross mentions459 and

which I want to conclude this study with, the gift of Wisdom. All texts studied

uncovered it as one of our best friends and companion and her name is Sophia.

459 The Dark Night, 1. 14, 4; 2. 5, 2.

169

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URSULA KING, Teilhard de Chardin and the Contemporary Mystic Quest, Occasional

Paper 17, Discern Institute for Research on the Signs of the Times.

WALDMAN ISCAH, Filling in the Gaps, in MyJewishLearning (on-line) :

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Rabbinics/Midrash/Midrash_Aggadah/How_Mi

drash_Functions.shtml [18 September 2010].

WENHAM GORDON, Exploring the Old Testament. The Pentateuch, 4 vols., Great Britain

2002-7.

________, What is Mimetic Theory, (on-line) : http://www.ravenfoundation.org/about-us/what-is-

mimetic-theory, [16 November 2010].

________, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? in YouTube Broadcast Yourself (on-line) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSkWNwXA73Y&noredirect=1, [7 September 2011].

WOODRUM PAUL, Saint Aelred – the Patron Saint of Integrity in Sacred Pauses.

Meditation and Prayers for Life’s Spiritual Highway (on-line) :

http://sacredpauses.com/saint-aelred-the-patron-saint-of-integrity/, [22 November 2011].

________, WW2 People’s War. An Archive of World War Two Memories – written by the

public, gathered by the BBC, in BBC, (on-line) :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/06/a2013706.shtml, [16 September 2010].

http://homepage.virgin.net/david.torkington/Extracts%20from%20books/3a%20the%20mystic.htm

http://homepage.virgin.net/david.torkington/Extracts%20from%20books/3a%20the%20mystic.htm



http://www.ravenfoundation.org/about-us/what-is-mimetic-theory,%20%5b16

http://www.ravenfoundation.org/about-us/what-is-mimetic-theory,%20%5b16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSkWNwXA73Y&noredirect=1


http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/06/a2013706.shtml

181

6.3 Magisterial and Episcopal Documents

Interview of the Holy Father Benedict XVI with the journalists during the flight to Benin.

Apostolic Journey to Benin 18-20 November 2011. Papal Flight Friday, 18 November

2011, in The Holy See (on-line) :

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/november/documents/hf_

ben-xvi_spe_20111118_incontro-giornalisti_en.html, [20 November 2011].

PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE & PEACE, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the

Church, London 2004.

POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), (25 December

2005), India 2006.

POPE BENEDICT XVI, Sign of the Cross is reminder of the Trinity dwelling in us, teaches

Benedict XVI in Catholic News Agency (2010) (on-line) :

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/sign-of-the-cross-is-reminder-of-the-trinity-

dwelling-in-us-teaches-benedict-xvi/ [06 November 2011].

POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (30 November 2007), (on-line) :

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-

xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html, 6 [17 September 2011].

RATZINGER JOSEPH, Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Great Britain 2007.

RAZTINGER JOSEPH, Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week: From the

Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, USA 2011.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20111118_incontro-giornalisti_en.html,%20%5b20

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20111118_incontro-giornalisti_en.html,%20%5b20

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/sign-of-the-cross-is-reminder-of-the-trinity-dwelling-in-us-teaches-benedict-xvi/

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/sign-of-the-cross-is-reminder-of-the-trinity-dwelling-in-us-teaches-benedict-xvi/



182

6.4 Carmelite Sources

BURROWS RUTH OCD, Essence of Prayer, London 2006.

CHALON JEAN, Therese of Lisieux, translated by Anne Collier Rehill, Great Britain 1997.

CHANDLER PAUL, O.CARM, Carmelite Spirituality. The Book of the First Monks (ca.

1370), Notes, 2009.

DE GOEDT MICHEL, Il Cristo di Giovanni della Croce, Citta’ del Vaticano 2000.

Dio Parla Nella Notte, Vita Parola Ambiente di San Giovanni Della Croce, direzione P.

Federico Ruiz, ocd, Genova 1990.

DOBNER CRISTIANA, OCD, Teresa di Gesu (1515-1582) < Mi Amado a mi y yo a mi

Amado > in I Custodi dell’Incanto, Citta’ del Vaticano 2002.

ELIZABETH OF THE TRINITY, I Have Found God. The Complete Works. Letters from

Carmel, 2 vols., translated by Anne Englund Nash, Washington 1997.

EULOGIO PACHO, OCD, Giovanni della Croce, santo e dottore della Chiesa (1541-1591)

– L’Opera e il Messaggio, in Dizionario Carmelitano, diretto da EmanueleBoaga, O.Carn

- Luigi Borriello, O.C.D., Roma 2008.

HANS URS VON BALTHASAR, Two Sisters in the Spirit, Therese of Lisieux & Elizabeth of

the Trinity, San Francisco 1992.

________, John of the Cross in Doctors of the Catholic Church Homepage (on-line) :

http://www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com/JC.html, [12 August 2011].

http://www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com/JC.html

183

MATTHEW IAIN, The Impact of God. Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Great Britain

1995.

MCGREAL WILFRID, At the Fountain of Elijah. The Carmelite Tradition, New York 1999.

O’DONNELL CHRISTOPHER, O.CARM, A Loving Presence: Mary and Carmel. A Study of

the Marian Heritage of the Order, Melbourne Australia 2000.

O’DONNELL CHRISTOPHER, O.CARM, Maria Nel Carmelo, in Dizionario Carmelitano,

diretto da Emanuele Boaga, O.Carm., & Luigi Borriello, OCD., Roma 2008.

RUIZ FEDERICO, San Giovanni Della Croce. Mistico e Maestro, Bologna 1989.

SLATTERY PETER, The Springs of Carmel. An Introduction to Carmelite Spirituality,

New York 1991.

STEIN EDITH, The Science of the Cross, translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D.,

Washington 2003.

The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, The book of her foundations, minor works,

poetry. Vol 3., Translated by Kieran Kavanough, OCDand Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, India

2006.

The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, The book of her life, spiritual testimonies,

soliloquies. Vol 1., Translated by Kieran Kavanough, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD,

India 2006.

The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, the interior castle,

meditations on the song of songs. Vol 2., Translated by Kieran Kavanough, OCD and

Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, India 2006.

184

The Ten Books on the Way of Life and Great Deeds of the Carmelites (including The

Book of the First Monks). A Medieval History of the Carmelites written c.1385 by Felip

Ribot, O.Carm, edited and translated by Richard Copsey, O.Carm, Czech Republic 2005.

VELLA ALEXANDER, OCARM, Elia Profeta, in Dizionario Carmelitano, diretto da

Emanuele Boaga, O.Carm - Luigi Borriello, O.C.D., Roma 2008.

WAAIJMAN KEES, The Mystical Space of Carmel. A Commentary on the Carmelite Rule,

Leuven 1999.

WELCH JOHN, The Carmelite Way. An Ancient Path for Today’s Pilgrim, New York

1996.