Reading the Bible With Rene Girard: Conversations With Steven E. Berry by Michael Hardin & Steven E. Berry

Author:Michael Hardin & Steven E. Berry [Hardin, Michael & Berry, Steven E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality
ISBN: 9781514777510
Google: gp9hjwEACAAJ
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2016-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

People have observed that mythical heroes are an incredible lot when you look at them. Some of them limp, some of them are hunchbacked, some of them have an arm missing, some of them have twisted this or that; most of them are remarkable for their ugliness; but they can also be remarkable for their beauty, like Apollo. Very often there are also gods that work on iron, blacksmiths like Vulcan, or Hephaestus in Greece. We know that in most archaic societies when they first forged metal, the blacksmith was a little bit of a scapegoat: he was not allowed to live in the village, he had to be outside; he was feared. Why? Because he was providing tools that could be used as weapons. In a way he was changing violence in the community; he was making violence easier. He was making it easier to kill the neighbor. So when you killed your neighbor you were angry, but after that you could say it was the blacksmith’s fault: he gave me that tool. Maybe it’s not even a weapon. Maybe it’s to work the ground, but you can’t say he did it. Do you see what I mean? So you have a scapegoat. That’s why you have so many gods who work in iron because they are scapegoats. There are all sorts of clues in ancient culture if you put together facts, observations that are very common, which are often repeated across quite a few cultures. You can understand why mythical heroes are very often wounded people, unusual people or cross-eyed sometimes; they are terrifying for some reason.

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