Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam > Blaise Pascal Instituut > Girard Studiekring > COV&R 2007 > Abstracts Papers 

Lucien van Liere

Revenge, Terror and the Last Sacrifice in the Context of 9/11 

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ABSTRACT

1. Introducing a Problem

The history of Christianity shows an impressive record of violence. Violence is not limited to historical incidents but seems to be inherent to the teachings of Christianity itself. The central heart of these teachings starts with an act of violence: the crucifixion of Jesus. This fundamental feature colours the tradition of Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant.

The most powerful and influential interpretation of the death of Christ is found within the framework of sacrifice. Sacrifice is a bloody practice that brings the community from one situation into the other, never really changing its structure. Girard continually emphasizes how sacrifice repeats itself. It reveals the open wound within a community that does not heal: its mimesis. In this context, a sacrificial interpretation of Christ’s death (God sacrifices himself in Christ for ‘our’ sins) means a religious legitimation of the ongoing history of sacrifice and violence.

In this paper I shall give an alternative interpretation.  

2. The Cycle of Revenge: Religion and Terror

Throughout history, sacrifice has also been a main feature of terrorism. It plays an important part in contemporary terrorism and the so-called war on terror. Sacrifice appears in the context of ‘the open wound of community’. The open wound comes to the fore in the (sometimes imaginary but always ideologically and/or religiously cultivated) outrage about what ‘they’ have done to ‘us’ or what ‘they’ intend to do to ‘us’. Illustrations of this structure can be found from Indonesia to Serbia and from Rwanda to The Netherlands.

In terrorism and the war on terror, sacrifice appears as the fundamental structure of the cycle of revenge. This cycle continually ends in the sacrificial death of the outside other.

3. Sacrifice

Sacrifice in this context continues the cycle of revenge. With each new sacrifice another is created. Each murder opens up the wound within community. Religious and cultural dualism become the context in which sacrifice can continue.

The Christian teachings of the sacrifice of Christ have always had two faces. Christ’s death is God’s revenge for human mischief. This implicitly means that death is a legitimate reaction towards ‘bad behaviour’. In this image, human violence toward the threat of the other seems legitimate. Terrorism and the war against it answer this image. However, on the other hand, Christ’s death is also interpreted as the last possible sacrifice (Barth) or as the rejection of sacrifice (Girard). This last interpretation makes human violence impossible.

4. On Sacrificing Sacrifice

An alternative interpretation of Christ’s death starts with the humanness of Christ. His death is the death of the human being, the result of what ‘I’ have done towards ‘you’, ‘her’ or ‘him’. As such, Christ’s death is the objective mirror of subjective sacrifice. On the other hand, to be imperative as the mirror of sacrifice, is not Christ’s death itself a sacrifice – be it the last sacrifice? If so, Christian thinking against sacrifice always bears in itself a sacrifice it can not get rid of, without sacrificing sacrifice. The cross of Christ is always on a Christian’s shoulders. This however results in a sharp perspective on terror and terrorism from a Christological point of view.

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Lucien van Liere studied theology at the UFPG Brussels and at the University of Leiden; philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. He received his PhD from Kampen Theological University last September (Geweld, genade en oordeel....). He has been teaching philosophy and systematic theology at Jakarta Theological Seminary from 2000-2006.