René Girard, Conversion, and the Present Media Moment
WN: This is immensely helpful in this historical moment. Lumen Christi Institute René Girard, Conversion, and the Present Media Moment Grant Kaplan Saint Louis University Carly Osborn University of Divinity Fr. Steve Grunow Word on Fire Catholic Ministries Cynthia Haven National Endowment for the Humanities This event is co-sponsored by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries […]
René Girard’s Theories Still Explain the Violence All Around Us
WN: This is the CBC headline for airing the David Cayley five-part series on violence and its origins, the last three of which air this and next week (March 10, 11 and 17, 2016), by David Cayley. Please click on: René Girard and Violence
René Girard: The Anthropology of the Cross as Alternative to Post-Modern Literary Criticism
WN: This is definitely worthwhile reading! An excerpt: It is sometimes said that the post-modern age is the post-Holocaust age — the age of humanity trying to comprehend the horrific depths of its own violence. Or is it? The post-modern age is also one that might be said to have become preoccupied with texts — […]
Cruciform anthropology: an introduction to the thought of René Girard
WN: This was written by Simon J. Taylor, and is so helpful in understanding René Girard. An excerpt: What difference does it make to human society that Jesus was crucified? This is, I think, the fundamental question that René Girard addresses in what he has called ‘the anthropology of the cross’. Girard’s work on anthropology, […]
René Girard and Violence
WN: The paper below was (re)written just for my own joy in 1997, with subsequent rewrites. A version was prepared for a Fraser Valley BC “Christ and Violence” conference in 1998. It almost got me fired before hired! One of the interviewers for my (new) position as Executive Director of M2/W2 Association had taken exception […]
Reconciliation–WN Contribution to:
illustration above: The rescue by (Anabaptist) Dirk Willems. Engraving by Jan Luiken in Martyrs Mirror, v. 2, p. 387 of Dutch edition. Scan provided by Mennonite Library and Archives WN: Reconciliation is a key term in the New Testament. The article excerpted below was written in 1989 at the invitation of The Mennonite Encyclopedia (Volume […]
Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018
At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]
Easter Song and Reflections on the Resurrection
***NOTE: Please check out the footnotes for additional, more detailed commentary. Also, there are poetry and songs in the final footnote; and four additional songs below that.*** Please also see two great sermons, one on Good Friday, the other on Easter Sunday, by my colleague Randy Klassen: both in the context of criminal/restorative justice. Easter […]
The Mumbai Bombs, July 2006
July 12, 2006 Dear Editor: Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter MacKay predictably was the pot that called the kettle black in (otherwise legitimately) condemning the bombing horror in Mumbai this week. Last July Prime Minister Tony Blair likewise as hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote […]
The Impact of Christ on Female/Male Relationships
This study still has pertinence today. There are two versions, which titles below explain. The second was presented on the University of British Columbia campus to a secular/Christian audience. An excerpt from the first: Introduction A few years ago, a man phoned me and asked if I had some time for a talk. I replied […]
Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey Discussion Group with David Cayley
David Cayley is introduced on this website here. This summer, he consented to meet with a group of us on Zoom, to discuss his new book on Ivan Illich. It is titled, as you can see: Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. We are delighted. Our meetings are the last Tuesdays of each month at 3:30 […]
Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004
WN: Some of the papers on Restorative Justice are understandably repetitive, though I culling the obviously such. image above: sikhnet.com Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004 By Wayne Northey In 1974 two youths who had been drinking and had been “talked to” by the police already, took out their frustrations on the small […]
Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking
WN: The host was the affable lawyer Gerry Palmer, quite well-known in Abbotsford for his work with numerous non-profit organizations, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of the Fraser Valley. Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking Philosopher’s Café: Legal Grounds Coffee House, Abbotsford, April […]
Paper and Story: “The Sex Offender as Scapegoat”
John 12:20 – 33; John 11:49-52: 49But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” 51Caiaphas did not say this on […]
Love on a human scale: The Gospel according to Ivan Illich – Review by Marcus Peter Rempel
Every now and then a book comes into my life that puts me in a happy dilemma: I want to lend it to all my friends, but I don’t want it to leave my house. Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey is a labour of love by Illich’s long-time friend and co-conspirator, David Cayley. At 552 […]
States of Incarceration
by Emily Widra and Tiana Herring Tweet this September 2021 WN: My strongest statement about the horrors of worldwide incarceration and penal abolition is here: Restorative Justice: Peacemaking Not Warmaking; Transformative Justice: Penal Abolitionism Not Prison Reform. It was done for The Kenarchy Journal, Volume 2, Article. For the full PDF, please click on the […]
9/11 was a test:
Essay by Carlos Lozada Illustration above: by Patrik Svensson Sept. 3, 2021 [pullquote]. . . the official response to 9/11 unleashed some of its worst qualities: deception, brutality, arrogance, ignorance, delusion, overreach and carelessness.[/pullquote]WN: Below are excerpts from an outstanding essay by a Pulitzer Prizer winner for criticism in 2019. But the last lines, though […]
The Genealogy of Violence
The Genealogy of Violence: Reflections on Creation, Freedom, and Evil, Charles K. Bellinger, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, 157 pages. excerpt: This gem is to theology what a Rolls Royce engine is to automobiles. One reviewer says, “It is no small achievement to write a theological book that is both first-rate social science and first-rate […]
This entire country is haunted
By Alicia Elliott July 12, 2021 photo above: The Mohawk Institute Residential School, referred to by former students as ‘the Mush Hole’ (Photograph by Alex Jacobs-Blum) WN: This statement from the article highlighted below haunts me: These acts were done on behalf of every non-Indigenous family who proudly calls themselves Canadians, because this is what […]
“The Apocalypse Has Begun”:
by David Cayley January 2, 2016 WN: This is a highly instructive essay. There is much on my website about David Cayley’s writings. Please see as well his masterful and massive book on Ivan Illich: Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. excerpts: Ivan Illich, Christ and Anti-Christ, René Girard This article was written for The Palgrave […]
Signs of a Need to Hate
By Community last July 11, 2021 image above: David G. Brown / Flickr WN: The article highlighted below asks why Conservatives (not all) have such a need to hate. Sadly, Liberals (not all) evoke such a question too. The answer for puzzling Liberals according to the author is: Trump’s supporters love him, this hypothesis declares, […]
The war inside the Canadian Armed Forces
By Marie-Danielle Smith July 8, 2021 illustration above: by Anna Minzhulina WN: Military. Police. Prisons.1 All are rife with abuse within. As the article states: The Canadian Armed Forces, as an institution, has a necessarily coercive culture. Leaders must have a high degree of authority and control over their subordinates in order for the military […]
Inside the Capitol Riot: An Exclusive Video Investigation
By The New York Times June 30, 2021 WN: While video images can be selectively strung together, they are real images just the same. And this was anything but the proverbial walk in the park–or a tourist visit to the Capitol. Søren Kierkegaard wrote: The crowd is untruth. Anthropologist René Girard spent a career explicating […]
Opinion: It’s ‘The Code’ of the NHL, and it has no cure for stupid
Opinion by Ken Dryden May 27, 2021 photo above: Toronto center John Tavares is taken from the ice on a stretcher on May 20 after being injured during Game 1 of the Maple Leafs’ first-round playoff series against Montreal. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP) Ken Dryden, a former goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens and […]
Restorative Justice: Peacemaking Not Warmaking; Transformative Justice: Penal Abolitionism Not Prison Reform
by Wayne Northey for The Kenarchy Journal, Volume 2. image above: cccu.org PLEASE NOTE: Below are excerpts of my paper for the above-noted Journal. At the very end of this post, one may click on the highlighted text, and read the full article in PDF. And of course one may also read it on the […]
Houses of hate:
Dangerous, racist and falling apart. By nearly every metric, the nation’s penal system is not just failing, it’s making things worse. By Justin Ling February 28, 2021 photo above: Medium security range at Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba (Correctional Services Canada/Flickr) WN: The article highlighted does not sugar-coat the reality: Canadian prisons (and […]
The Incomparable David Cayley
WN: Introduction Below is a clickable list of many of David Cayley’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) about 50-minute-long podcasts. They were presented between 1980 and 2012, the latter date when he retired. Who is David Cayley? To quote theologian Brad Jersak, Clarion Journal‘s curator: I think he’s truly among Canada’s greatest thinkers. Few who know his […]
The Man Card
WN: Please see this new and powerful video–free until November 3! It tells America’s story of the past half century through White Male Identity Politics. Canadian-born Liz Plank in her fall 2019 book (before the pandemic!), For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity states baldly: Although the news often focuses […]
RJWorld eConference, August 22 – 31, 2020: Robbie Robidoux & Wayne Northey
RJWorld eConference, August 22 – September 6, 2020: Robbie Robidoux & Wayne Northey RJ World 2020 was a 17-day (extended by 7 days) online showcase of more than 100 inspiring presenters from around the world – facilitators / practitioners / teachers / researchers / artists – who are passionate about sharing insights and ideas in […]
Life Under the Bomb Means a Life of Resistance
Published on Thursday, August 06, 2020 by Common Dreams by Rev. John Dear photo above: “Our message over the years has been simple and urgent: Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They don’t make us safer; they don’t provide jobs; they don’t make us more secure—these are age-old lies. Instead they bankrupt us, economically and […]
An Open Letter To Joe Biden
Dear Mr. Biden. If I might be so bold, I wonder about connecting some dots at this incredible kairos moment of U.S. and world history. I was moved by your empathetic videoed message to the Floyd family during the funeral service in Houston. You have deeply suffered multiple losses as this article sensitively points out: […]
Cornel West Says ‘Neo-Fascist Gangster’ Trump and Neoliberal Democrats Expose America as ‘Failed Social Experiment’
WN: Please see in light of the title this outstanding article by Canadian Wade Davis: The Unraveling of America. [pullquote]One knows a “civilization” is dying when small men cast long shadows.–anonymous American pastor, 2020[/pullquote] 1. Introduction to the Post: This post, updated numerous times, has become a kind of dog’s breakfast. One could spend hours […]
Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism
Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism March 15, 2019 by Ben Debney drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair WN: There is much on “savage capitalism” on this website. This expression likely references Rudyard Kipling’s famous line “The savage wars of peace” from his classic pro-American Empire poem: “The White Man’s Burden: The United States […]
On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal
On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal Trudeau tried to pressure justice minister to cut deal to let corporation avoid bribery prosecution, she says. By Tyee Staff February 27, 2019 | TheTyee.ca photo above:Jody Wilson-Raybould: ‘I come from a long line of matriarchs and I am a truth teller in accordance with the […]
Trump’s Pantheistic Temptation
February 06, 2017 by Vern Redekop WN: Anything my friend and scholar Vern Redekop writes — and he is prolific! — is invariably thoughtful/thought-provoking. To understand a greater context for his article copied in full below, please see: René Girard. Vern is a noted Girardian scholar. ********** In the book, René Girard and Creative Mimesis, […]
Hellrazed? — edited by Kevin Miller
WN: Kevin Miller produced the movie Hellbound? five years ago to look at changing views on the doctrine of hell. As he began “exploring” hell, partially motivated by having read his friend Brad Jersak’s book, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem, he was alerted to the publication of Rob […]
Salvation as At-One-Ment
book cover above: Stricken By God? is an anthology of papers by authors from all the major Christian traditions, arguing for a nonviolent atonement. WN: My paper1 specifically argues for a restorative justice view in contradistinction to the the retributive view of justice as described below, one that flows out of a violent atonement theory. […]
Restorative Justice Then, Now and A Dream
WN: A massive body of Restorative Justice literature has emerged. A superb early study is Restoring Justice (Strong and Van Ness, 1997). A great early overview of the wider context is The Expanding Prison (Cayley, 1998). The first major study was Changing Lenses (Zehr, 1990) – considered a classic. The two best Christian theological studies […]
The Banality of War
WN: Below is the first footnote of an essay for a possible chapter in an upcoming book slated for fall publication, Hellrazed, edited by Kevin Miller, of Hellbound? (the documentary) fame. I look at the issues of war and hell together from a Christian perspective. I periodically update the essay, then upload the revised version […]
Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports
February 8, 2017 What the author is describing is scapegoating, ubiquitous in human cultures and history. René Girard, recently deceased, is the dominant modern theorist in this regard. For more on scapegoating violence and Girard on my website, please see amongst others this and this. (You will also see below each article related posts highlighted.) […]
The CIA’s Involvement in Indonesia and the Assassinations of JFK and Dag Hammarskjold
By Edward Curtin and Greg Poulgrain Global Research, July 22, 2016 In the “City of God,” St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great. The Emperor angrily demanded of him, “How dare you molest the seas?” To which the pirate replied, “How dare you molest the whole world? Because I […]
An Open Letter to Michelle Obama, October 13, 2016
WN: A friend reminded me, in response to that below, that none of us in the first world is untainted vis à vis violence. And with that taintedness is a bending at least towards hypocrisy and Pharisaism – which my friend also reminded me about. So with that mea culpa, please read on.: Dear […]
Eat Me: The Cannibalistic Origins of the State
David Gornoski Friday, August 05, 2016 This an outstanding piece, especially in the writer’s powerful juxtaposition of Jesus’ invitation to a common meal of his “flesh and blood”,and our otherwise consuming each other in ongoing acts of mimetic rivalry. However, I take serious note of this caveat: Eat Me: The Cannabilistic Origins of State – […]
Of Lethal Drones and Police Shootings
Friday, 08 July 2016 00:00 By Kathy Kelly, Consortium News | Op-Ed photo above: Demonstrators record a crowd of police officers on hand in New York’s Times Square, where a large crowd protested after fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota on July 7, 2016. (Christopher Lee / The New York Times) WN: Police brutality […]
The London Bombs, July 2005
By Wayne Northey July 9, 2005 Dear Editor: Prime Minister Tony Blair hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote to the major powers that aerial bombing of civilians had “profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity” and was “inhuman barbarism.” He later as disingenuously referred to the December 7, 1941 […]
We Are Mansfield Park
image above: The young Fanny and the “well-meant condescensions of Sir Thomas Bertram” on her arrival at Mansfield Park. A 1903 edition WN: This was published in the Calgary Herald on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of D-Day. An excerpt: Western culture is committed to a mass mythology of the righteousness of war. The […]
Whither Now?
Justice Without Violence Conference, June 5 – 7, 1997, Albany, New York An excerpt: Introduction Whither Now? The question presupposes a prior: Whence Already? Part of knowing who we are is discerning from where we have come. Do we feel rooted in a hopeful story? Part of our cultural milieu is to deny there is […]
Victims, violence and Christianity
by René Girard. WN: It is an edited version of The Martin D’Arcy Lecture delivered in Oxford in November 1997. Please click on: Victims, violence and Christianity
Transformative Justice Vision and Spirituality
WN: Some of the material in the essay below, now reworked, first appeared in The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, “Christianity: The Rediscovery of Restorative Justice”, editor, Michael Hadley, by Pierre Allard and Wayne Northey; New York: SUNY Press, 2001. In light of two books by historian William Cavanaugh, I would be less sweeping about […]
Spirituality of Restorative Justice
WN: Presented at Arts & Peace Festival, Restorative Justice Workshop, March 1, 2001. Something similar was also presented at Regent College in 2003. It is also clickable. an excerpt: Centrality of Western Christian Spirituality for Criminal Justice The defining religious ethos of Western spirituality historically has been Christianity. Christianity has also been the reigning ideology […]
Spirituality Evaluation of Restorative Justice
Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 4, 2003 WN: I attended and presented at a few such Conferences over the years, especially in the years I worked for Mennonite Central Committee (MCCC): 1989 to 1998. an excerpt: I thought I’d look at a Christian Spirituality of Restorative Justice through […]
Restorative Justice and M2/W2 Ministry
M2/W2 (Man-To-Man/Woman-To-Woman) is the Restorative Justice agency with which I was associated for forty years. An excerpt: A few years ago, at a VOMA (Victim Offender Mediation Association) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I saw a plaintive note on a bulletin board: DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY RESTORATIVE JUSTICE VIDEO RESOURCES THAT ARE NOT RELIGIOUS?! […]
The Sports Crowd is Untruth
WN: This was written in response to the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot in 2011. An excerpt: Søren Kierkegaard wrote “The crowd is untruth.” René Girard saw it in the hidden uncouth: Scapegoating violence, originary, in all human cultures. It is all innocent fun say dominant culture vultures Of every sports win. Yet there lurks deeper […]
Is Paul the Father of Misogyny and Antisemitism?
WN: This paper highlighted below answers in the negative the question posed in the title. It was written by Pamela Eisenbaum, Pauline scholar, practising Jew, feminist, and professor at a Christian seminary. She subsequently wrote Paul was not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle. I delivered a sermon inspired by her, entitled […]
Transformative Justice Vision and Spirituality: M2/W2 Association and The Criminal Justice System
This paper was done in May 2002 for a presentation at a Correctional Service of Canada institution. I do not recall the particular arrangements. An excerpt: Violence is the Ethos of our Times “Violence is the ethos of our times”, begins one writer’s robust assessment of contemporary Western culture (Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and […]
Holding Forth . . .
. . . or fifth . . . or sixth . . . Below is a smattering of sermons preached and presentations made over the years. Langley Mennonite Fellowship (our home Church) began a series called, God: Then & Now; Always & Eternal. The classic image used is Trinity (Троицa, romanized: Troitsa) by 15th-century […]
Bloomfield Avenue
A Jewish-Catholic Jersey Girl’s Spiritual Journey, Linda Mercadante, Cambridge, Massachussets: Cowley Publications, 2006; 211 pages Linda was a friend from way back in 1975/76 while we were a students at Regent College. We produced a book with some other students of photographs of our year at Regent, entitled Reflections. She has taught theology for many […]
Against The Death Penalty
Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment, Gardner C. Hanks, Herald Press, 1997; 208 pages After this review was published in 1998 in a local Christian newspaper, I received a phone call from a then M2/W2 volunteer with a curious surname: “Bullett”. He needed to talk with me immediately! When he came to my office, […]
Transformative Justice Vision and Spirituality
WN: Much of this material first appeared in The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, “Christianity: The Rediscovery of Restorative Justice”, editor, Michael Hadley, by Pierre Allard and Wayne Northey; New York: SUNY Press, 2001. In August 1998, all contributors to the above book project converged on Sorrento Centre for a week. The book project and […]
Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins
November 19, 2004 WN: I cannot recall where this was published/presented. A similar article also on this website (“Restorative Justice Stories – MCCC 50th Anniversary, December 14, 2013”) was presented nine years later in Winnipeg exactly on the MCCC 50th anniversay weekend, and on the occasion of the launching of Esther Epp-Tiessen’s book, Mennonite Central […]
Punishment and Retribution
By C.F.D. Moule WN: The following is from the “Preface” of the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee “Occasional Paper” Publication, 1990) edition: Ever since I first saw a footnote about this essay (in William Klassen’s Release to Those in Prison, Herald Press, 1977), I was very taken with its central thesis “…that the word ‘punishment’ and […]
Spirituality Evaluation of Restorative Justice
Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 4, 2003 An excerpt: A few years ago, at a VOMA (Victim Offender Mediation Association) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I saw a plaintive note on a bulletin board: DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY RESTORATIVE JUSTICE VIDEO RESOURCES THAT ARE NOT RELIGIOUS?! Restorative […]
The Spirituality of Penal Abolition
ICOPA IX Presentation 2000 Noted Canadian Quaker activist and author Dr. Ruth Morris was the main organizer of the above annual event, that year in Toronto. She later was a recipient of Correctional Services Canada’s Restorative Justice Award, and of The Order of Canada. Her death from cancer (September 17, 2001) was a huge loss […]
Towards A New Paradigm of Justice
WN: Contemporary Western Restorative Justice theory and practice were not first developed by Americans, though they have greatly contributed to its worldwide expansion. In particular Howard Zehr’s name stands out in the earlier and subsequent years; but not as theory originator, or first practitioner. From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, […]
Beyond Retribution
A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime, and Punishment,Christopher D. Marshall, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001, 342 pages. An excerpt: This book is central to “secular” Western culture, steeped ineluctably in Judeo-Christian trappings, in its quest to move towards Restorative Justice. “It is an irony of history”, claims Religious Studies professor James Williams, “that […]
Restorative Justice
NOTE: Some of what follows is excerpted from Chapter One of Justice That Transforms: Volume 1 WN: From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, is one of the three “grandfathers” (if one must use that term) chronologically of Restorative Justice, together with Mark Yantzi and Dave Worth, the first and longstanding […]
How America Fractured Into Four Parts
By George Packer July/August 2021 Issue The Atlantic image above: Lucy Jones WN: Wow! The essay is stunning as it is brilliant. At least read my excerpts below. Better though, purchase the book it is excerpted/adapted from: Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal. It challenges understanding about America’s past and present place in […]
Cardinal Law’s complex role in the contemporary history of clergy sexual abuse
December 28, 2017 by Thomas P. Doyle photo: Boston Cardinal Bernard Law bows his head as a victim of clergy sexual abuse begins to address the U.S. bishops in 2002 in Dallas. (CNS/Bob Roller) WN: The events below focus mainly on Bernard Law and as archbishop his cover-up of clergy sexual abuse in Boston. My […]
A Great Irony of History: The Anthropological Significance of the Cross, and Peace
WN: I wrote this and presented it at the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) June 19, 2008. Paul Nuechterlein whom I cited often, as it turns out, was present at the workshop… He has done a wonderful Lectionary of Readings from a Girardian perspective. An excerpt: In this presentation, I propose a very simple […]