Why Rene Girard's "Scapegoat" is Not a Theory of Atonement
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/01/28/siding-with-jesus-on-the-cross/ Siding with Jesus on the Cross Jan 28, 2014 @ 0:03 By Scot McKnight 16 Comments Making sense of the cross has been the church’s business since the day Jesus died . It’s way of making sense was to theorize or, to put the matter more delicately, to theologize — even if Zinsser taught me long ago that adding -ize to a word is a shortcut. Indeed, maybe so, but the church didn’t take shortcuts when it came to explaining its beliefs through the cross. One theory after another unfolded in the church, each adding to the other and at times a new one arising because it thought earlier theories got things wrong. One such theory is the Abelardian theory, and another is the Girardian theory. The former is connected to the word “exemplary” and the latter to “scapegoat” and “mimetic violence.” I contend neither is in fact a theory of atonement even if each reveals y...