Creative Chaos

by André Rabe

  Girard’s understanding of myth is sometimes seen as antagonistic to more psychological interpretations. And there are striking differences. However, these different perspectives could enrich one another.

  We have looked earlier, from a psychological point of view, at how chaos can symbolize the unconscious. Girard, however, sees the mythic chaos as representing an actual community in crisis. There is an obvious difference in interpretation here. But if we look deeper, we’ll see that they are connected. Girard himself would argue that it is mimetic desire and the turmoil within individual persons that escalate into a communal crisis. The chaotic crisis without is, in reality, a projection of the unresolved chaos within. These perspectives are synergetic. And, indeed, a growing number of psychologists are applying Girardian thought to their field and the results are beautiful. 8

  What the biblical stories suggest is a whole new perspective and relationship with the chaos. It is not violence that solves the problem of chaos but rather a transformation of desire. Instead of projecting our passions and frustration onto others, the work begins within ourselves. And just like Jacob, we may find that the realm of the chaotic unconscious could be the source of new meaning - that God is in this I, I did not know. These psychological insights do not contradict Girard’s interpretations but enrich them.

  Similarly, mimetic theory can enrich a psychological reading of Scripture. Some purely psychological readings of Scripture will recognize the archetypal symbols that are also present in myth and, consequently, assume that these symbols have the same meaning. A recognition of the development of these symbols and how they are subverted by the biblical narrative is often not appreciated. Without a subversion of the meaning of myth, its blind spots remain hidden. Scripture leads us to a place of understanding that transforms - a place of conversion.

  The fact that the Scriptures have much in common with myth does not mean it is simply another version of the same story. Rather, this is a case of a lamb in wolve’s clothing. The whole cycle of violence is exposed from the inside out. The lamb that was slain through every act of violence since the foundation of civilization, would allow the principalities and powers to do what they have always done, but this time the truth of their deception would be exposed. The principles on which our societies have been built, the power by which they operated, once again consumed the powerless lamb. However, this time death swallowed more than it could stomach.

  Endnotes

  1 See for instance: Goodhart, Sandor, Jørgen Jørgensen, Tom Ryba, and James Williams. n.d. For René Girard .

  2 Rabe, Andre. 2015. Desire Found Me . Andre Rabe Publishing.

  3 Ibid. Chapter 2 and 3. Also see Oughourlian, Jean-Michel. 2010. The Genesis Of Desire . East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

  4 Williams, James, ed, The Girard Reader , New York: Crossroad, 1996, pg 283

  5 Haven, Cynthia L. Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard. East Lansing (Mich.): Michigan State University Press, 2018. Kindle Edition. Location 2320

  6 Ibid Location 2373

  7 Chapter by Gil Bailie in For René Girard: Essays in Friendship and in Truth

  8 see Garrels, Scott R. n.d. Mimesis And Science;

  Rene Girard and Creative Mimesis . 2016. LANHAM: LEXINGTON Books;

  Oughourlian, Jean-Michel. 1991. The Puppet Of Desire. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press;

  Oughourlian, Jean-Michel. n.d. The Mimetic Brain

  Chapter Nine

  New Creation

  God Unfolding in Flesh

  In the symphony of creation, Jesus is both a crescendo that concludes what came before and the silence that precedes a new beginning. The significance of this event divided human history into a before and an after.

  Those who knew him struggled to find language to express the astonishing grace, the overwhelming truth, and authenticity they experienced in him. After his death and resurrection, language had to be stretched to give a glimpse of what they encountered. He did not simply offer an alternative perspective. No. Somehow God himself was embodied in his person. How does one symbolize with language, an event so real?

  John’s gospel returns to the language of Genesis, to the beginning. The audience of this gospel were comprised of both Jews and Greeks and the word ‘logos’ had distinct meaning in both these cultures. For the Greeks it was the principle that sustained the cosmos in the midst of chaos. For the Jews it was the Word that was spoken by God to create and sustain all existence. John’s gospel declares that what we grasped at in these concepts has become flesh and intimately personal in Jesus. In all that exists a deep logic is at work and he names this logic, incarnation. All of creation is incarnation. All things exist in him, for him and through him (John 1:1-2). Yet, creation did not recognize what was enfolded within it (verse10). But those who recognize and receive this truth, are given the opportunity to unfold what is enfolded in them - to manifest the God who continually gives birth to himself (verse 11-13). And in them this inner logic becomes flesh. The truth and grace of our existence are on display in the person of Jesus Christ.

  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father… And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace.

  John 1:14-16 RSV

  Jesus did not come to show us what we could never be! He reveals the true depth of flesh - that God is present in all existence. The unconscious memory of blissful union, that unfiltered experience prior to the formation of language, is revealed as real. Jesus is aware of this union and his expressed intention is for us to experience this same union (John 17:22). To perceive my being as the gratuitous gift of grace, as the continual outpouring of God-becoming-flesh, is an experience that cannot but overflow in the act of giving myself for others. In union with him we once again partake of this wholeness, experiencing our completeness in him (Col. 2:10).

  The Human Archetype Transformed

  Jesus brings an end to the old human archetype of the first Adam and creates a new human archetype - in him the old human story is concluded and the new true humanity is summarized. “The first Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). The repetitive cycle of victims and victimizers switching places from generation to generation can finally be broken. The human story can break free from the curse of endless mimetic rivalry and find its true trajectory again. The movie is rewound and the narrative is reversed. In Jesus, God finds a human in whom the very essence of divinity can be embodied. Simultaneously, in Jesus, humanity finds a God fully at home within our existence. God has found a human in whom the story can be retold - the story of God and humanity; the story of creation and incarnation; the story in which you are included. Jesus does not simply provide an alternative story to that of the first Adam. He, in effect, becomes Adam, becomes the human archetype, in order to undo the human story and bring us back to a place from which we can start again.

  As mentioned before, according to Irenaeus, God did not create the earthling perfect and complete to begin with, for the weight of such divine perfection would have been unbearable. Rather Adam had to grow into the capacity to receive, contain, and retain the divine nature.

  God had the power at the beginning to grant perfection to man; but as the latter was only recently created, he could not possibly have received it, or even if he received it, could he have contained it, or containing it, could he have retained it 1

  The essence of Adam’s error was the haste with which he grasped for a share in divine likeness. Our first archetype could not wait but wanted closure, completion, and certainty. And in this covetous act of taking, the gift was made impossible.

  Jesus, in contrast, submits to time and reveals that expectant patience is the right relationship of man to God. Being open to the unfolding of divine possibilities is not only for a season but is forever the correct human orientation towards God. Patient expectation makes the gift possible again. Fo
r the very nature of God is possibility. According to Jesus, God is the one for whom all things are possible. 2 To be open to possibilities is therefore essential to partake of this divine nature. Where the first human archetype became impatient and grasped prematurely, Jesus does not grasp, does not allow a sense of lack to cause him to cling but empties himself so that he may receive (Phil 2:6).

  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin beautifully expresses this theme of patience as follows:

  Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

  We are quite naturally impatient in everything

  to reach the end without delay.

  We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

  We are impatient of being on the way to something

  unknown, something new.

  And yet it is the law of all progress

  that it is made by passing through

  some stages of instability—

  and that it may take a very long time.

  And so I think it is with you;

  your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

  let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

  Don’t try to force them on,

  as though you could be today what time

  (that is to say, grace and circumstances

  acting on your own good will)

  will make of you tomorrow.

  Only God could say what this new spirit

  gradually forming within you will be.

  Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

  that his hand is leading you,

  and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

  in suspense and incomplete.

  The human story is being transformed in the very act of the mind of God becoming flesh. The way Jesus transforms our narrative is not by writing a critical review of our history but by entering the drama as one of the characters. The same events that played out in every generation would occur again in his life, but he will offer a radically new interpretation of these events. David Bentley Hart names this new interpretation, a narrative reversal :

  It is because Christ’s life effects a narrative reversal which unwinds the story of sin and death and reinaugurates the story God tells from before the foundation of the world - the story of the creation He wills, freely in his eternal counsels - that Christ’s life effects an ontological restoration of creation’s goodness. 3

  Exactly how does he achieve this narrative reversal? Let’s begin on a personal level by comparing the development of human consciousness, as personified in Adam and presented in the first section of this book, with Jesus’ development.

  Jesus and Stages of Consciousness

  Being fully human, Jesus developed through all the stages of consciousness as every other human. For our first human archetype, the emergence of self-consciousness went hand in hand with a sense of lack-of-being. What is different in Jesus’ sense of self? As we saw in the Yahwist account, the experience of being alone is a prominent feature of the awakening of self-consciousness (Genesis 2:18). Consequently, God created a companion and it was in this reflective relationship that the earthlings continue to evolve.

  It is in community that humans develop a sense of self. The bonds that develop between a baby and their primary caregiver will influence all future relationships. When we are left alone, with no one to reflect, our reflection turns inward. Rebekah’s question begins to echo: “Why I?” Am I abandoned? How one interprets this experience of being alone will have a dramatic effect on one’s sense of self and future connection with others. Attachment theory is a psychological examination of these early formative experiences. 4

  So, let me ask again, what is different in Jesus’ development of self-consciousness? He experienced times of being alone just like every other human. And his reinterpretation of what it means to be human begins in these earliest experiences. That he was comfortable being on his own is implied in one of the only stories about his childhood. As a young child he was quite happy to spend days without his parents. For more than a day his parents did not notice his absence.

  And the little child grew and became strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. And each year, at the feast of the Passover, his parents journeyed to Jerusalem. And when he had reached twelve years of age they went up for the feast as they were accustomed to do; And having finished their days there, and as they were on their way back, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and his parents were unaware he had done so. Rather, assuming him to be in the traveling party, they went on their way for a day, then sought him among their relatives and acquaintances, And, not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for him. And it happened that, after three days, they found him in the Temple, sitting amid the teachers, both listening to them and posing them questions; And those listening to him were astonished at his intelligence and at his responses. And seeing him they were struck with wonder, and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us thus? Look! Your father and I are in horrible distress seeking you.” And he said to them, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in the home of my Father?”

  - Luke 2:40-49 DBH

  This awareness of being at home with his Abba, even when his parents are not around, remains with him as he grows up. As an adult, when Jesus explicitly speaks about being alone, he gives us the key to his interpretation of such experiences. Jesus imagines God as a Father that is always with him. I do not use the word imagine to suggest that it is only a fantasy. Rather, he imaginatively participates in this unseen reality. And so Jesus’ sense of self is profoundly shaped by his awareness of Abba.

  “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”

  - John 16:32

  When there are no other people around and his reflection turns inward, he becomes aware of an Other within the self, just like Rebekah did. But in Jesus, this awareness of otherness within the self does not result in conflict and alienation but in a deep assurance of his Abba’s presence. The connection between the conscious and the unconscious is not achieved after years of self-deception and conflict as in the case of Jacob and Esau. Rather for Jesus the heavens are open, and the ladder between this transcendent realm and his earthly existence is buzzing with activity. God is in this place - this I - and Jesus knows it.

  And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

  - John 1:51 RSV

  Jesus, Mimesis, and Self-Consciousness

  The self, formed in this awareness of divine acceptance, does not need to compensate for a sense of lack-of-being through egotistical self-assurance. The type of certainty produced by self-assurance has nothing but its own testimony to stand on. Arrogance is always founded on the insecurity of having no other assurance except your own. But the assurance that comes from an understanding of the true relationship between self and God, produces a paradoxical confidence. For it acknowledges the nothingness of what it is in itself, and simultaneously the infinite source that sustains it. Living out of this assurance means a total denial of the certainty that is generated within oneself and a total dependence on what comes from another. Those who live from ego-centric confidence cannot understand this as demonstrated by their response to Jesus.

  Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

  Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he wi
ll show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.

  - John 5:16-20 NRSV

  The backstory to this exchange between the Jewish religious leaders and Jesus is an incident in which he healed a man on the Sabbath. He also instructed him to pick up his bed and walk, which was prohibited on the Sabbath. The religious leaders could not simply let it go, for what was at stake is the interpretation of Sabbath, God, and their culture. What kind of person could be part of a culture and yet have the confidence to so radically reinterpret it? Was he not, as all other humans, a reflective being, influenced by the people around him?

  The basis for not working on the Sabbath was the fact that God rested from all his works on this day. However, through many arguments and theological discussions between the Jewish thinkers, it was acknowledged that although God rests he still maintains some essential works on the Sabbath. 5 Because babies are born and people die on the Sabbath, the work of giving life and judging the dead had to continue. In the Jewish understanding at this time, judgment followed immediately after death.

  So Jesus answers them: “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God .

  They could not argue with the statement that God is still working, but he was reinterpreting both the Sabbath and relationship to God. The fact that Jesus claimed to be imitating his Father, for them, meant that he was making himself equal to God! They could only understand such confident imitation as rivalry. In their perspective, Jesus sets himself up as an independent equal to God. But Jesus answers: “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. ”