"The victim who speaks in the Psalms seems not in the least 'moral,' not evangelistic enough for the good apostles of modern times. The sensibilities of our humanists are shocked . . . The display of violence and resentment 'so characteristic of the Old Testament' is deplored, … [Read more...]

"The Bible enables us to decipher what we have actually learned to identify in persecutors' representations of persecution. It teaches us to decode the whole of religion . . . The Gospels do indeed center around the Passion of Christ, the same drama that is found in all world … [Read more...]

"Almost no one is aware of his own shortcoming. We must question ourselves if we are to understand the enormity of the mystery. Each person must ask what his relationship is to the scapegoat. I am not aware of my own, and I am persuaded that the same holds true for my readers. We … [Read more...]

"Persecutors believe they choose their victims because of the crimes they attribute to them, which make them in their eyes responsible for the disasters to which they react by persecution. Actually, the victims are determined by the criteria of persecution that are faithfully … [Read more...]

"Ultimately, the persecutors always convinces themselves that a small number of peple, or even a single individual, despite his relative weakness, is extremely harmful to the whole of society" (Rene Girard, The Scapegoat, p. 15). … [Read more...]

"There was nothing more cast up to the orthodox by the Novatians and Donatists, than that they were defective in this, in admitting to, and retaining in the ministry, men that were corrupt. Yet after many trials they were never able to prove what they alleged upon some eminent … [Read more...]

"[T]hose concerning whom I am about to speak insinuate themselves in the name of the gospel so tha by indirect whispers they may alienate whomever they can from Christ. Those people in fact consist partly of hungry vagabonds who, unless you fill their bellies, will bury you under … [Read more...]

"Never did men run to quench fire in a city, lest all should be destroyed, with more diligence, than men ought to bestir themselves to quench this in the church. Never did mariners use more speed to stop a leak in a ship, lest all should be drowned, than ministers especially, and … [Read more...]

"And that fellow is certainly well aware that he is lying shamelessly; but because men like that have made up their minds to attack us in any way they can, they think that they have the right to blab about us anything that can stir up ill will against us. And, of course, when … [Read more...]

"Hence we see, that the longer one pleads for a thing, he becomes more confident therein, because his own pleading secretly prevails more with himself, than reasons proposed by any others to the contrary can" (Durham, p. 255). … [Read more...]