What is God like? What are humans like? When it comes to the Atonement, those two questions guide all of our other questions. They are the two implicit questions behind N.T. Wright’s comments about the Atonement in the video below. For example, Wright says: “Tragically, some Christians have said that on the cross God embraced the use of violence to solve the problems, therefore this legitimates us in embracing violence…and I want to say, ‘Excuse me. You’re just not reading... Read more
Suzanne and Adam interview Brian McLaren about his latest book We Make the Road by Walking. Brian discusses the events of Holy Week, including: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. How should we interpret Biblical violence? What does sacrifice mean? Is it good to doubt and fall into despair? What does Resurrection mean to the modern world? Those are just a few questions we explore in this engaging conversation with Brian! Read more
On July 29, 1914 the first shots of the Great War were fired from gunboats on the Danube River. Austro-Hungarian artillery shelled Serbia from the river and the war that was supposed to be over in weeks or months lasted four and a half years, nearly wiping out a generation of young men from across Europe. Wikipedia’s WWI entry reports that “The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million. There were over 16 million deaths and 20 million... Read more
On Thursday, July 31 at 3:00 Eastern, we interviewed the highly influential activist, author, and public theologian Brian McLaren about his latest book We Make the Road by Walking. It was an exciting chat about interpreting biblical violence, especially the violence during Holy Week. You can watch the interview here. This is one of Brian’s most important books. As Tony Jones says, “This is Brian McLaren at his best.” Everything Brian writes is worth reading, but I agree with Tony... Read more
Michael Hardin of Preaching Peace is one of the greatest teachers of mimetic theory and the nonviolent atonement. We were fortunate to have Michael with us on the Teaching Nonviolent Atonement Live Chat last October and are pleased to present Michael’s teaching to you now. In the video, Michael discusses mimetic theory, nonviolent atonement, the sacrificial principle, and scientific research into human imitation. Michael states that “Once you read Girard there’s no turning back.” He guides us through how René... Read more
What impact does grading or rewarding our children for their school work have on their motivation to learn? There’s a wide range of thought on whether or not external rewards motivate kids to do well. But I am a Montessori pre-school directress, and so I am firmly in the camp of those against using external rewards. Here are my reasons. According to Dr. Maria Montessori, children are born with an intrinsic desire to learn. In fact, they love learning so... Read more
Sometimes a blog just writes itself. I’m preparing to attend the annual academic conference on mimetic theory being held near Munich, Germany July 21-24, 2014. We will be focusing on René Girard’s book on war called Battling to the End in the context of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. Girard’s analysis of war centers on his reading of another famous treatise written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars by Carl von Clausewitz, called simply... Read more
In the midst the World Cup, conservative columnist Ann Coulter wrote a scathing article about soccer. She denounced the sport for infecting the United States with moral deterioration. She wrote, “Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation’s moral decay.” Coulter is a shock journalist who specializes in scandal. She garners attention by shaming and demonizing liberals, in this case for our “morally decaying love of soccer” – and she is very good at scandalizing... Read more
The annual conference of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion begins next week! This conference will be especially interesting as it commemorates the 100th anniversary of World War 1 and relates that war to mimetic theory. The conference is titled, “Battling to the End 1914-2014: The Escalation of Violence and Victimization: Rene Girard and Jean-Luc Marion.” Suzanne and I had the opportunity to interview the organizer of the conference, Fr. Richard Schenk. Fr. Schenk is a priest of the Dominican... Read more
I am not a politician, so I’m not an expert on immigration policies. I am not an economist, so I’m not an expert on the economic benefits or burdens of immigration. But I am a public theologian. I try to understand how we can participate with God in setting things right, healing the world, and reconciling human beings with one another, with the world, and with God. How is God setting things right? Jesus, in one of his most important,... Read more
Teaching Nonviolent Atonement
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