Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads - Hardcover

Bailie, Gil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824514645 ISBN 13: 9780824514648

Publisher: Crossroad, 1995

Synopsis

This book is about the spiritual crisis of our time. It is also a literary work, an often miraculous interplay between cultural documents and historical periods.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

While politicians, social workers, news commentators and TV evangelists are wringing the nation's collective hands in dismay over mounting social disintegration and violence, Bailie forthrightly sets himself the task of exposing the deep cultural roots of the problem. By synthesizing an astounding array of seemingly discordant perceptions ranging from Bob Dylan songs and the Aztec myth of Tezcatlipoca to Greek tragedy and the Hebrew prophets, he presents a grippingly unified analysis undergirded by rigorous Christian conviction. Writing this challenging book, Bailie explains in an epilogue, "has drawn me ever deeper into the power of Christian revelation." Bailie's vision of prophetic Christianity goes far beyond the conventionally comfortable one held by many churchgoers, some of whom may squirm in the face of Bailie's harsh assessment of how we've come to our culture's fraying and what's to be done about it. On the other hand, those with the patience to follow Bailie through the course of his argument may, as Rene Girard promises in a foreword, be "lifted to a level far superior to what most writers think the average reader is able to absorb."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

About a third of the way through his book, Bailie reports a story told by the nineteenth-century Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard witnessed a street fight in which three men set upon a fourth. The crowd watched with growing indignation; then three of the bystanders jumped on one of the attackers and beat him, applying, Kierkegaard noted, exactly the same rules as the offenders. Afterward, Kierkegaard tried to persuade one of the avengers of the illogic of this behavior. But the man would not be convinced, insisting that the attacker richly deserved to have three persons against him. Bailie, whose book is one of a growing number of popular applications of Rene{‚} Girard's theory of mimetic desire, takes a position much like Kierkegaard's, trying to convince the avengers of the illogic of their behavior. He manages a lucid, lively appreciation of Girard that will ring true on many levels (even if one remains unconvinced by Girard's--and Bailie's--claims of uniqueness). Whether it will prove more persuasive than Kierkegaard remains to be seen. Steve Schroeder

About this edition

• Publisher: Crossroad
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0824514645
• ISBN 13: 9780824514648
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312