Hart and Girard: Unworldy tenderness sown in human consciences
Posted by: Matthew in UncategorizedSeveral times while reading Hart’s book on Christian history I found myself saying, “He should totally cite Rene Girard here! That would totally beef up his argument”. Alas, the Frenchman is nowhere to be found. Hart has come to some of the same conclusions though.
“Christendom” was only the outward, sometimes majestic, but always defective form of the iteration between the gospel and the intractable stuff of human habit.
The more vital and essential victory of Christianity lay in the strange, impractical, altogether unworldly tenderness of the moral intuitions it succeeded in sowing in human consciences.
If we find ourselves occasionally shocked by how casually ancient men and women destroyed or ignored lives we would think ineffably precious, we would do well to reflect that theirs was – in purely pragmatic terms – a more “natural” disposition toward reality.
-David Bently Hart, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies, p.213
The unworldly tenderness sowed in human consciences. The heart of Girard’s theory is explaining the mechanism for exactly how this happened. After Jesus, there is just no going back to the way things were. Ever. The deep lie that allowed us to ignore innocent victims has been permanently unmasked.
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February 4th, 2010 at 2:35 PM
Hello Matthew,
Thanks for pointing out the simlarities. I’m reading Hart’s “The Beauty of the Infinite” and also see connections between the two. Hart discusses Girard for about 3 pages in Beauty of the Infinite. He seems to think highly of Girard’s nonviolent God, but critiques Girard’s early work as a failure to distinguish between different nuances of sacrifice within Israelite religion, and thus claims Girard risks leaving all Israel behind. I don’t think Hart knows Girard’s thought has evolved and has become more nuanced. But as I read Hart’s book he does have a lot in common with Girard. They have a similar understanding of desire, identity, and of the nonviolent God. Thanks for pointing out the similarities in Hart’s other books. I look forward to reading them.
Peace,
Adam
February 4th, 2010 at 10:27 PM
Hi Adam,
That’s encouraging to hear. I’ve got to check out that Hart book you’ve mentioned. I decided (after years) to take a class at the university this spring (Music Analysis), and I’m finding that my own vocabulary for talking about aesthetics is almost zero.
I also agree that Girard has gotten WAY better with time. His most recent stuff is much more developed than when he was making a stir in the late 70s. Also easier to read!
Blessings.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:31 PM
Matt,
Just want to say thank you for blogging about Hart, who I regard with (that word that is not quite worship). I’d love to hear your thoughts about Beauty of the Infinite, which I thought was genuis. Nobody else could get away with throwing around so many big words, but somehow Hart is not pedantic; the robustness of his thought really requires those big delicious terms. I wrote index cards full of new terms and caried them around with me like lozenges.
As for Girard; I always feel like he’s saying something profound but I’m never sure what it is.
February 6th, 2010 at 1:09 AM
Haha! That’s hilarious about Girard. Absolutely right though. That’s why he’s so hard to explain – no good one liners. He really only works in large chunks. Also, the very nature of his theory is that the big reveal is so obvious we still can’t see it because it’s right in front of our own noses.
That other Hart book sounds great. It’s moving near the top of the list.