I See Satan Fall Like Lightning cover art

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

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I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

By: René Girard
Narrated by: Martin Girard
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About this listen

A seminal work on the astonishing power of the gospel by one of the most original thinkers of our time.

©1999, 2001 Editions Grasset & Fasquelle; Orbis Books (P)2022 Thiel Foundation Christianity Religious Studies

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Most relevant
I have read this twice through now and intend to reread it as often as it takes to assimilate the world shattering insight of this work. It concerns contagious violence resulting from (mimetic) desire and its overthrow by the revelation of the crucifixion of a victim later acknowledged as wholly or innocent. The Satanic attempt to recruit crowds against a single victim is laid bare and hence defeated. Don’t be put off thinking this is supernatural theology. It is a brilliantly explained theory of mankind. It’s the book I would take to a desert island along with the Bible & Shakespeare. Highly recommended.

Seminal Work of Anthropology

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The key insight or set of insights in this book are so profound and deep that they can radically change the way you look at the world.

The performance is fairly flat, but the fact of the narrator’s relation to the author seemed important to me, so I decided that was more important than a ‘performance’.

I hope Girard’s work is picked up with greater momentum in the coming years as I genuinely believe it’s like a key to unlocking both a wildly important theological door and a civilisational one.

Cannot be unread

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I am amazed by this book, one of the most remarkable I've ever encountered. It's so seriously rooted in an academic tradition that there were times it could have been dry... But never was. It stretched my brain, and I will have to listen again, and possibly again. I'll also buy a physical copy to really get to grips with it. I must give a shout out to the author's son, by the way. Not being a professional narrator he reads the text without arty flourishes, but his deep understanding helps him present the text in an unadorned simple way that helped my understanding. I also appreciate his unmannered and accurate French when quoting texts. I only wish he could have narrated more of his father's books - yes, I just ordered a bunch more. What an astonishing find. I am blown away.

Astonishing book, fantastic reading by the author's son.

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Girard shows how the single victim mechanism and founding murder, previously at the heart of human civilisation, is exposed and reversed by Christ’s teachings and most of all in his Passion. Girard’s
anthropological exposition of what was accomplished on the Cross will leave both believers and non-believers utterly dumbfounded.

Devastatingly brilliant

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The foreword was a great conclusion, ironically. How the scapegoat mechanism only partially manifests in the modern world. Debt the first 5000 years brings mimetic theory into economics, another way of understanding the dynamic equilibrium we find ourselves in

Read by Rene's Son!

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