Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T08:34:22.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Antidote to Violence?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Andrew Lascaris OP
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The cruelties committed in the war in former Yugoslavia profoundly shock us. Villages are completely destroyed, children, women and men, even their cattle, are killed. Women are raped and forced to give birth to the children of their rapists. The perpetrators are ordinary citizens, pleasant people, good neighbours. We do not have to look for violence that far away. Bombs go off in the city of London, children are killed in Warrington, and in revenge innocent young men are massacred in Belfast. Violence exists outside war situations as well. Domestic violence is probably the most common form of violence: incest, beating, or simply bullying. It is often hidden; in spite of everything, loyalty to parents and other members of the family overrules the urge to confide in someone, to complain and to accuse in public. Though violent novels and films may be very popular, articles and books on violence are generally not. The Bible is full of violent events, but there is relatively little literature on violence in Scripture.

Why do we accept violence relatively easily as a part of life? Why do peaceful people resort to violence in certain situations? It seems to me that violence is closely linked with justice. Violence is used to redress wrongs or to prevent injuries. The source of much violence is the thirst for justice. People always try to justify their use of violence by appealing to their right to restore injustices done to them in the past or in the present.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 74 , Issue 873 , July 1993 , pp. 345 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Cf. Lévinas, E. Difficile Liberlé(Paris, 1963, 21)Google Scholar.

2 Nagy, I.B. Boszormenyi and Spark, G. G. Invisible Loyalties. (New York, 1973)Google Scholar.

3 Poetica IV. See for the role of imitation Girard, R.. Things Hidden Since Ike Foundation of the World. (London, 1987)Google Scholar.

4 Koch, K.. Spuren des Hebraischen Denkens. (Neukirchen, 1991) 184–206Google Scholar.

5 For the practice of Jewish sacrifice see: Sanders, E.P.. Judaism. Practice and Belief 62 1 BCE‐66CE. (London, 1992) 47145Google Scholar.

6 R. Girard. o.c.

7 Talmud, Joma VI, 1.

8 See Sanders, E.P. Jesus and Judaism. (London, 1985)Google Scholar and Dunn, J.D.G. The Parting of the Ways. Between Christianity and Judaism and their Significance for the Character of Christianity. (London, 1991)Google Scholar.

9 Lévinas. o.c. 168.

10 Lévinas, E. Quatre Lectures Talmudiques (Paris, 1968) 3637Google Scholar.

11 Cf. Falconer, A.D. (Ed.). Reconciling Memories, (Dublin, 1988)Google Scholar