Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal
The calling of the church is to follow Christ (imitatio Christi). What does this calling entail? Following Žižek’s and Derrida’s interpretation of Benjamin’s interpretation of law and violence, the paper will argue that the call to follow Christ is not to subvert the law, but as Paul argues - Chris...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of the Free State
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Acta Theologica |
| Online Access: | https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/at/article/view/2613 |
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| _version_ | 1823858752106790912 |
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| author | J. A. Meylahn |
| author_facet | J. A. Meylahn |
| author_sort | J. A. Meylahn |
| collection | DOAJ |
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The calling of the church is to follow Christ (imitatio Christi). What does this calling entail? Following Žižek’s and Derrida’s interpretation of Benjamin’s interpretation of law and violence, the paper will argue that the call to follow Christ is not to subvert the law, but as Paul argues - Christ came to destroy the law. In this article, Christ will be interpreted as one who did not counter this violence of the law (state-maintaining violence) with a counter violence of state-forming violence, but completely undermined the justification of both forms of violence (state-forming and state-maintaining) with a divine violence. If the Christ event is read as an exemplary narrative of the post-metaphysics in the linguistic turn in the work of Derrida, this opens up new possibilities for both theology as well as the role of the church within the context of a postmodern world, and these possibilities will be explored.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1d15627e53a24c38a3f0880725aa734c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1015-8758 2309-9089 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | University of the Free State |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Theologica |
| spelling | doaj-art-1d15627e53a24c38a3f0880725aa734c2025-02-11T09:56:19ZengUniversity of the Free StateActa Theologica1015-87582309-90892014-12-0134210.38140/at.v34i2.2613Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminalJ. A. Meylahn0University of Pretoria, South Africa The calling of the church is to follow Christ (imitatio Christi). What does this calling entail? Following Žižek’s and Derrida’s interpretation of Benjamin’s interpretation of law and violence, the paper will argue that the call to follow Christ is not to subvert the law, but as Paul argues - Christ came to destroy the law. In this article, Christ will be interpreted as one who did not counter this violence of the law (state-maintaining violence) with a counter violence of state-forming violence, but completely undermined the justification of both forms of violence (state-forming and state-maintaining) with a divine violence. If the Christ event is read as an exemplary narrative of the post-metaphysics in the linguistic turn in the work of Derrida, this opens up new possibilities for both theology as well as the role of the church within the context of a postmodern world, and these possibilities will be explored. https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/at/article/view/2613 |
| spellingShingle | J. A. Meylahn Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal Acta Theologica |
| title | Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal |
| title_full | Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal |
| title_fullStr | Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal |
| title_full_unstemmed | Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal |
| title_short | Imitatio Christi and the holy folly of divine violence: the church as ultimate criminal |
| title_sort | imitatio christi and the holy folly of divine violence the church as ultimate criminal |
| url | https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/at/article/view/2613 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jameylahn imitatiochristiandtheholyfollyofdivineviolencethechurchasultimatecriminal |