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Compassion Or Apocalypse? – A comprehensible guide to the thoughts of René Girard

James Warren author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Collective Ink

Published:31st May '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Compassion Or Apocalypse? – A comprehensible guide to the thoughts of René Girard cover

Ren Girard s thesis that culture and religion arose from an original act of scapegoating murder gained international scholarly attention in the early seventies with his publication in France of Violence and the Sacred. A few years later, with Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Girard made it clear that his basic insights derived of all places from the Bible. Those insights are finally escaping the confines of academia, and coming to the awareness of a broader, theologically minded public. Many people are beginning to find in Girard answers to troublesome questions such as: Is God violent? Is there a necessary relationship between violence and religion? Why are there so many violent stories in the Bible? Why did Jesus have to die? Are we living in the end times? In clear, understandable prose, Compassion or Apocalypse shows how the Girardian perspective answers such questions, making Girard s mimetic theory and its application to biblical interpretation available to those who have little or no familiarity with Girard s work. To read the Bible from a Girardian point of view is to discover the radical message of God s nonviolent love in its historical wrestling with human violence, and its immanent confrontation with the gathering human apocalypse.

I'm convinced that the seminal work of Rene Girard is the single most promising and productive contemporary resource capable of stimulating fresh readings of the Bible, constructive critical thought about Christian theology and practice, and incisive inducement to productive activism. Several scholars are engaging productively with Girard's thought, but James Warren has written the best popular introduction and overview - substantial and thorough yet accessible and delightfully written. --Brian McLaren

ISBN: 9781782790730

Dimensions: 215mm x 141mm x 29mm

Weight: 434g

380 pages