Re: Origin of Religion

From: Gudmundur Ingi Markusson (gudmundurim@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu 26 Dec 2002 - 01:23:02 GMT

  • Next message: Keith Henson: "Re: Origin of Religion"

    Kenneth:

     

    >> Yes, maybe, but IMO religion is only one of the elements that can bound people together into a group … but saying that religion and only religion is the fact that matters, I don 't agree.

     

    Sure, no need to claim that religion is the only mechanism possible, it just appears to be especially powerful in this regard.

     

    >> Yes, but Girard is more interested in the scape- goat- principle within religious texts as the catalysator for groupsbounding mechanisms … Again, IMO this has nothing to do with religion as such

     

    Girard has certainly many angles. But his theory is very much a theory of religion. In his opinion, the scapegoat is the origin of gods, with all their paradoxical ambiguity: it is held responsible for the mimetic crisis and for the resolution of the crisis; it is simultaneously dangerous and messianic; it is the true mysterium tremendum et fascinans (to recide R. Otto’s cumbersome archaism) in religion.

     

    Regards,

    Gudmundur

      

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