17 - The Great Inversion

The Great Inversion

Power is the basis of all the mimetic rivalry Girard believes drives society. The serpent, the accuser introduces the new normal in desire and imitation. When these were once ruled by “self with the other”, the resulting goal is now “self over and against others”. Prior to the serpent, we did not need a commandment to love your neighbor as yourself because this is how we behaved naturally, following God’s example. From the sermon on the mount to to the parable of the sheep and the goats, the gospels, especially that of Matthew serve as corrective against self interested power. Here individuals are called to lower their own power and status, while focusing power outside of themselves aiding others without. This is directly opposed to the serpent who uses power over the naive to advance its own goals. What we understand as power is the true power of God completely flipped on its head. We hear of God’s kingdom as being upside down, however that is what God always intended. It is humanity (with much help from the accuser) which has turned God’s kingdom upside down.

The key here is to realize that this is not a change in how God perceives humanity or creation. God remains the same, loving, serving and pursuing us as he always has. God does not shun us because we are now stained and rebellious. He stays with us. It is our outlook on creation and God that has changed. Even the consequences of the fall do not involve a change in humanity, but instead are the revelation of pre-existing conditions, already built into creation that Adam and Eve were ignorant of. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was exactly that, a tree that reveals knowledge by eating of it. This is not the result of some magical fruit, but instead the comes from the actual experience of doing something that is contrary to God and the loss of innocence.

This knowledge is in two distinct but related categories. The first is the discovery of limitations in creation. The second is the discovery of power dynamics in relationships between individuals.