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Revealing the Scapegoat Mechanism: Christianity after Girard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

Fergus Kerr
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Extract

The philosophy of religion, as commonly understood by Christians in both the Catholic and Reformed traditions, whether they think it a worthwhile enterprise or not, begins with arguments for the existence of a deity, proceeds to show that this deity is necessarily unique, eternal, and suchlike, and leaves it to reflection on divine revelation to consider whether this deity might be properly designated as ‘three persons in one nature’. Much later, after discussing the metaphysical implications of the incarnation of the second person of the triune godhead, one would arrive at theories about the death of Jesus Christ as putatively redemptive, and describable as sacrificial, atoning and the like.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 32 , March 1992 , pp. 161 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1992

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