ACI ZOOM: “It shall not be so among you!”

René Girard and the Challenge of Truly Being Church

With Michael Kirwan SJ

ZOOM – Thu 30th March – 8.00 pm

“It shall not be so among you!”
René Girard and the Challenge of Truly Being Church
 
“But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you.‘” (Matt 20:25,26) Why is it that, despite this solemn instruction from Jesus, the Church came to mirror the pyramidal social order of the past?  And why has unjust social inequality persisted even in spite of the call of the secular ‘Enlightenment’ for ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’?

In the view of a global colloquium of 21st century thinkers, this puzzle has finally been resolved by the American-French Catholic scholar René Girard, who died in 2015. His solution involves a new understanding of the verb ‘to covet’ – and of the warnings against coveting in the ninth and tenth commandments.

Throwing an extraordinary light on current problems of power, of violence, and of the environment – as well as on the conflict within the church – Girard’s insight also strongly supports the revelatory authority of the Gospels, reinforcing the importance of Easter.

In a Zoom presentation on Thursday March 30th, 2023, Michael Kirwan SJ will argue that Girard’s insights can help resolve the church’s current divisions and inner tensions – and help all Christians become equal synodal partners in the united servant church that Jesus foresaw.

Dr Michael Kirwan is Director of the Loyola Institute based in Trinity College Dublin and Assistant Professor of Theology in the Catholic Tradition. He is the author of Discovering Girard (Darton, Longman and Todd 2004) a recognised introduction to the seminal insights of one of the most influential thinkers of our time.
To join this event at 8.00 p.m. on Thursday 30th March, click the Zoom link below. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88981621030?pwd=WjBSc05zcnVHNnh1Zmx1NktZbVpGdz09
Meeting ID: 889 8162 1030
Passcode: 380084
The Association of Catholics in Ireland

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2 Comments

  1. Sean O'Conaill says:

    The Violence of Good Friday has nothing to do with God! – Michael Kirwan SJ (Zoomcast)

    How the Divine Reproaches of Good Friday make clear that God the Father is in solidarity with all innocent victims, and not the author of the human violence that too often accompanies superficial religion.

    According to Michael Kirwan SJ, the violence of the Good Friday events has nothing to do with “God sending his son to be some kind of expiatory sacrifice. It is not about God punishing his son. The violence of Good Friday is entirely the violence of human beings – and pious human beings at that.”

    Reply

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