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

Similar Posts

The mis-use of the retired bishop of Rome, Benedict

Blog
1 Comment

Brendan Hoban writing in the Western People highlights how some people opposed to the reforms of Pope Francis are misusing the retired Benedict in an attempt to further their cause. “At first it was mainly a few cardinals and higher churchmen whom Francis had removed from their positions (mainly those who opposed his Vatican reforms); then it was others who imagined they warranted promotion but their prospects in the new dispensation were no longer promising; and there was the hard-right of Catholicism who imagine that anyone who disagrees with them (even a Pope) is wrong.”

Holy Week Rituals are a Loss beyond Words

Blog
1 Comment

Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, writes about the absence of Holy Week Ceremonies this year.
“Church leaders are caught between their responsibility to give clear and appropriate guidance and the felt need of the people to celebrate the key events of the first Easter. But their (and our) moral responsibility is clear. The bottom line is that no compromise that might endanger health and life is acceptable.”

The children of this age are more shrewd …

Blog
2 Comments

Brendan Hoban writing in his Western People weekly column suggests that church authorities need to re-evaulate how they sometimes dispose of church assets and resources to civic authorities.
” I get the feeling that sometimes civic authorities are laughing behind their hands at the gullibility and innocence of church authorities, especially when there is so little credit given for the donation of sites that run into millions of euros. “

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

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.