David Gornoski explores how the story of Jonah, Susanna’s persecution, and Daniel’s imprisonment serve as evidence of early Christianity’s deeply anti-sacrificial meaning and aesthetic. These stories deal with averted sacrifice and mercy for the weak, misfits, and outsiders.
We talk about human sacrifice in history and our modern times. What binds us together? What is the psychological-social force that unites us out of our personas? We look at the earliest depiction of the Cross of Christ in history–a telling piece of street graffiti meant to deride the new concept of Christ followers that […]
Things Hidden host David Gornoski analyzes the movie ‘Joker’ while using its themes about culture, scapegoats, hierarchy, doubles, envy, and the breakdown of myth with the support of the Mimetic theory founded by Rene Girard. Saturnalia and other winter solstice carnival festivals preceding sacrifice, Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus, Jesus and the Demoniac, and […]
Jesus’s persecution looks like the Saturnalia sacrificial festival of the Romans as well as the scapegoat ritual of Leviticus and the Greek pharmakos purge. This was a feature of Jesus’s plan in demonstrating the ugly reality of how humans make culture, order, and peace. Find out how this social mechanism Jesus uncovers operates in world […]
In this inaugural episode of THINGS HIDDEN, we learn about the phenomenon Jesus describes as “Satan casting out Satan.” How does this seemingly obscure passage inform your world, meaning, and order of your life? Along the way, we will use the Mimetic theory of the late French anthropologist Rene Girard to help us dissect the […]