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Sölle, Girard and the Religion of Substitution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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In recent years and in separate spheres Dorothee Sölle and René Girard have developed work relating to a theological account of the Cross of Christ which amounts to a strong refutation of substitutionary atonement. Both these thinkers come from distinct backgrounds. Sölle, a political theologian, was a student of Bultmann and has often referred to his importance for her theological development. Girard is not a theologian as such, but rather, a literary critic with strong sociological influences and considers his work to be influenced by Emil Durkheim. Nevertheless there are strong implications in his work for theology and especially christology. These two thinkers are compared here because their work has consequences for theological praxis which carries us beyond the more ‘privatised’ accounts of the Cross of Jesus Christ in many contemporary religious settings.
The work of both thinkers shall be interpreted here and then a discussion on the relevance of that work will follow. This is especially important when it comes to the issue of violence and religion. Violence is used broadly here and refers not only to physical violence, but also to psychological violence within interpersonal relationships and human communities. Both argue against substitution as a christological concept since it reflects sacred or divine violence. Both see the Cross of Christ as a refutation of violence rather than the sacred justification or sanctioning of that violence. It seems, especially in Sölle, that the Cross is intimately linked to the concept of God, as far as Christian faith is concerned. If one perceives God in the face of the crucified, then it is all too easy to think of God as the one who sanctions the violence done to Christ on the Cross.
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- Copyright © 1997 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 D. Sölle, The Window of Vulnerability: A Political Spirituality (1990) 122-132.
2 Girard's work makes use of Durkheim's fundamental cultural distinction of the sacred and profane. See for example E.Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1982) 37. Girard discusses this in, R.Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1987) 82.
3 By ‘privatised’ I am referring to those religious communities which encourage participation solely in religious ritual in distinction to a strong liberative/social praxis.
4 D.Sölle, Suffering (1975) 22-23 (=Suffering).
5 Suffering, 26-27. Sölle's reaction to Moltmann's theology is in response to the contrast she sees in Moltmann's understanding of the work of the Father with that of the Son. The saving significance of the Cross lies, for Moltmann, in the fact that the Father has ‘given over’ the Son to be crucified. She understands Moltmann's theology to make the Father the source of the. Son's death and therefore violence. This is unacceptable for her. Suffering, 22-23. Moltmann is aware of her criticisms, The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions (1990) 175-178.
6 Suffering. 28. For Sölle the position of the individual with regards suffering is quite clear: ‘In the face of the sufferer you are either with the victim or the executioner - there is no option.’ Suffering, 32.
7 D.Sölle, Christ the Representative: An Essay in Theology Affer the ‘Death of Cod’ (1967) 88-89 (=Representative).
8 Representative, 103.
9 Representative, 106.
10 Representative, 119-120.
11 S. McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological Nuclear Age (1987) 63ff.
12 E.Bethge (ed.) D.Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (1967) 360ff.
13 J.G.Williarns, The Bible Violence and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence (1991) (=Williams) 6.
14 Girard describes mimesis in several writings. Deceit, Desire and the Novel (1966) 69, 76. Also in Violence and the Sacred (1977); Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1987) and The Scapegoat (1986).
15 R.Girard, Violence and the Sacred (1979) 8.
16 Williams, 12.
17 R. Girard, The Scapegoat (1986) 100ff.
18 Scapegoat, 149ff.
19 The Scapegoat, 108.
20 Williams, 213-214.
21 Williams, 63, 221.
22 J. Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ (l990) 175-176.
23 J.S.Victor, Satanic Panic (1993) 95.
24 S.W.Sykes (ed.) Sacrifice and Redemption. Durham Essays in Theology (1991).
25 F.Kerr, ‘Revealing the Scapegoat Mechanism. Christianity after Girard’ in, Religion and Philosophy. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 31 (1992) 161-175. There are of course ‘texts of terror’ which seem to encourage persecution. P.Trible, Texts of Terror. Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (1984) 65ff.
26 J.G.Williams, The Bible, Violence and rhe Sacred. Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence (1991) 71ff; 163ff; 185ff.
27 Williams, 115.
28 J.Derrida, ‘Violence and Metaphysics: An Essay on the Thought of Emanuel Levinas’ in, Writing and Difference (1978) 108.
29 Williams, 83.
30 Williams, 248. The italics are the author's.
31 D. Sölle, Political Theology (1974) 89.
32 Sölle describes such a scenario as Christofascism in D. Sölle. The Window of Vulnerability (1990) 133ff.
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