Summary of René Girard's I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The tenth commandment, which prohibits desiring the goods of your neighbor, attempts to resolve the number one problem of every human community: internal violence. If humans are naturally inclined to desire what their neighbors have or what their neighbors desire, this means that rivalry exists at the heart of human social relations.

#2 Mimetic desire is the desire that arises from the objects we should not desire, but do desire. It is the neighbor who gives value to these objects, and it is this third party who makes them desirable.

#3 The mimetic nature of desire explains the fragile nature of human relations. We are blind to the mimetic rivalries in our world, and each time we celebrate the power of our desire, we glorify it. We congratulate ourselves on having a desire that will last forever, but we do not see what this forever conceal: the idolization of the neighbor.

#4 The tenth commandment is the basis of imitating Jesus. It is not due to self-love that Jesus asks us to imitate him, but to turn us away from mimetic rivalries. What we are supposed to imitate is his desire, which directs him toward the goal on which his intention is fixed: to resemble God the Father as much as possible.

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