Christian Inversion of Jewish Nationalist Monotheism, and Its Romantic, Revolutionary and Narcissist Corruptions

Abstract

It is important to see Christianity as an internal reform of Judaism that surprisingly came to overtake its parent and attain independent existence. With the attack on all expressions of transcendence during the Enlightenment, this reform flipped into the enemy that, if it could not be expunged, at least should be flattened and institutionalized, along with its ant i quated parent, if society is to free itself from unpredictable and scurrilous outbreaks of this nefarious if apparently inveterate tendency and tropism within human nature, to soar instead into the sunny uplands of a neutralized social reality liberated from superstition and a consequently calmer public space. It is therefore disappointing to discover that, when spurs to internal conflict emanating from rival religious world views or mythic traditions have been eliminated, the human psyche is not finally set free from internal turmoil and incitement to external violence, but depressingly discovers itself at the mercy of a heightened internal sensitivity to accusations of irremedial reproach and eternal inadequacy, an awareness of social barriers that appear impossible to cross, of “ prizes ” that cannot be captured, which replace the earlier confessional denunciations and expulsions. This h e ightened social sensitivity, highlighted by Rousseau and recently expanded and richly developed by René Girard, suggests that unless disciplined and corrected—that is, not “ left alone ” —the human psyche does not return to “ psychic health ” and attain “ secular bliss ” , but rather becomes vulnerable to lower sources of intimidation and inadequacy; it can even become traumatized, psychotic or beastial from awareness of ordinary social differences. Otherwise, such developments as “ serial killing ” — puzzling and yet distinctive of our era —become difficult to account for. The U.S. has ten times as many homicides a year as Canada, over one hundred times as many as the U.K. Also, the U.S. has more serial killings per year than the next six countries combined.