{"id":18222,"date":"2016-06-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2997"},"modified":"2016-06-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T00:00:00","slug":"persecutor-to-apostle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/06\/persecutor-to-apostle\/","title":{"rendered":"Persecutor to Apostle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

P<\/span>aul\u2019s Damascus road conversion from persecutor of the church to apostle is well-known. His life story figures his hope for Israel, that the people who killed the Lord of glory would see the pierced Shepherd and repent.<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s transition from persecutor to apostle is less obvious, but no less dramatic. In a brilliant treatment of Peter\u2019s denial, Ren\u00e9 Girard points to the communal dynamics of mimesis and crowd contagion evident in the narrative. Responding to Auerbach\u2019s reading, he writes, \u201cMimesis is not a separate theme but it permeates the relationship among all the characters; they all imitate each other.\u201d In particular, \u201cPeter\u2019s behavior is imitative from the beginning, before a single word is uttered by anyone\u201d (179).<\/p>\n

Peter mimics the crowd\u2019s desire to be near the fire, a fire that forms a communion in the circle of its warmth: \u201cA fire in the night is more than a source of heat and of light. A fire provides a center of attraction; people arrange themselves in a circle around it and are no longer a mere crowd; they become a community. All the faces and hands are jointly turned toward the fire as in a prayer. An order appears which is a communal order. . . . The fire turns a chance encounter into a quasi-ritualistic affair\u201d (180).<\/p>\n

Peter \u201cviolates the communal feeling of this group.\u201d He doesn\u2019t fit. He has a Galilean accent, and he is recognized as one of Jesus\u2019s followers. Peter, though, is so desirous to fit into this crowd, so eager to have his place at the communal fire, that he denies Jesus. When Jesus was arrested, he believed that the community of disciples was finished. Rather than be an outsider, he joins himself to a different community, the community of those allied with the high priest who is inside putting Jesus on trial (180-1).<\/p>\n

What Girard\u2019s analysis highlights is the fact that Peter, for a few moments at least, gets exactly what he wishes for. He wants to be part of the community of the fire, and he becomes<\/em> part of that community. He doesn\u2019t simply step outside the community of disciples. That community is shattered (and will have to be regathered); he joins the opposing community, those who deny Jesus. He joins the persecutors.<\/p>\n

In John\u2019s gospel, Peter is restored to Jesus\u2019s fellowship at another communal fire, the breakfast fire at the shore of Tiberius. He has already left the communion of persecutors, but he rejoins the communion of Jesus only after the resurrection vindicates Jesus as the innocent scapegoat. At the charcoal fire, Peter confesses Jesus and is inducted into a positive mimesis: \u201cFeed My sheep,\u201d says the Good Shepherd. Be ready to lay down your life for them, as I have.<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s denial and restoration, like Paul\u2019s life of persecutor-to-apostle, traces the shape of early Christian hope for Israel, that those who deny and persecute the Christ are not cast off.<\/p>\n

(These thoughts were inspired by a recent colloquium on Ren\u00e9 Girard and the Bible. The quotations are from Girard, \u201cPeter\u2019s Denial and the Question of Mimesis,\u201d Notre Dame English Journal<\/em> 14:3 [1982] 177-89.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul\u2019s Damascus road conversion from persecutor of the church to apostle is well-known. His life story figures his hope for Israel, that the people who killed the Lord of glory would see the pierced Shepherd and repent. Peter\u2019s transition from persecutor to apostle is less obvious, but no less dramatic. In a brilliant treatment of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1590,1604,1388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paul","category-peter","category-rene-girard"],"yoast_head":"\nPersecutor to Apostle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Paul's Damascus road conversion from persecutor of the church to apostle is well-known. 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