By James Alison - Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin through Easter Eyes: 1st (first) Edition

by James Alison

Parler aujourd'hui du pch originel " dans une perspective la fois d'une complte fidlit la tradition et d'une complte fracheur, selon laquelle je pourrais vivre en chrtien catholique " du XXIe sicle, telle est la recherche de .James Alison dans ce livre. Cet ouvrage novateur rend ici la doctrine du pch originel accessible en tant qu'elle constitue toute la manire d'envisager l'histoire de l'humanit... la lumire de la Rsurrection. Partant de la conception des rapports humains propose par le modle mimtique de Ren Girard, l'auteur suit la trace, dans les critures, le progrs d'une comprhension toujours plus complte et nouvelle des phnomnes victimaires. Alison examine ensuite cette anthropologie thologique la lumire du salut, puis la met en perspective avec le magistre de l'Eglise et deux thologiens de premier plan, Augustin et Thomas d'Aquin. Il fait apparatre la cohrence de ces crits avec une interprtation du pch originel recevable par la foi et la raison. Il montre ainsi, toujours l'aune de la rdemption, que le pch originel ne peut tre compris que du point de vue du pardon : il est ce qui nous est pardonn.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction, Philosophy

Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

James Alison (b. 1959) is a Catholic theologian, priest and author. He grew up in an evangelical family in England and converted to Catholicism as a teenager. Alison studied at Oxford and earned his doctorate in theology from the Jesuit Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He was a member of the Dominican order from 1981-1995.

Reviews

[Aeisele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alison takes a look at the doctrine of original sin from a very different perspective. Traditionally the doctrine of original sin has been understood in a "foundational" manner. This means that the normal Christian story goes like this: creation, fall, redemption. Yet Alison changes this around. In his view, it is Jesus' death as a victim, and Jesus' resurrection as a victim, give us the hermeneutical key to understanding the whole stroy (what he calls the 'intelligence of the victim').
What we find out is that we can only understand original sin from the perspective of where we're going (salvation as new creation). In other words, the resurrection gives us the ability to "read back" the story of where we've been. And we find out that the originating sin of Adam actually had an effect that we didn't realize (this, by the way, is Judaism doesn't have a doctrine of original sin, he argues: the resurrection has yet to happen).
Overall Alison has a very fruitful way to look at original sin. Often Christians use the doctrine as an accusation against Adam, when really the doctrine is meant to show everyone's complicity in the violent structure of the world. On the other hand, the doctrine's main point is that we should know that "death is not necessary," i.e. that it was historically contingent, rather than historically necessary, that sin happened. This means that this is not who we fundamentally are. In other words, it is meant to steer us between the Scylla of Pelagianism, and the Charbydis of Manicheanism. Alison does a good job with that.

[Jed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wouldn't dare analyse the intellectual arguments of someone who learned from Jesuits. Yikes!

What I can say is that this book left me feeling sad for Roman Catholics. What must it be like to have your heavy thinkers continue to set you apart from all the other Christians who history has given a different set of practices and/or understanding of what the Jesus event meant for humanity?

I confess that once the author arrived at the claim that baptism into the Roman Catholic church is the requirement for salvation, I began to lose interest and only skimmed the last third. I wouldn't accept this kind of exclusionism from someone in my own denomination and I don't like it being done to the many fine Christians I have known in other denominations, who have had much to offer Christians living out their faith. It feels like intellectual bullying.

I wouldn't recommend this book generally, although some of my friends from ministry school might enjoy the intellectual games. This is definitely not a helpful book for people of faith with little or no theological or philosophical training.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a difficult and profound book. I read Part One with great interest, but really I skimmed Part Two which contains the heavily detailed exegesis on the theories of Part One. In this respect, I think that the writer of the Foreward is just plain wrong when he says that one should read chapter one and then go directly to Part Two. It is chapter one and the other chapters of Part One that are most directly engaging to a non-theologian, non-academic reader.

I have been stuck on the doctrine of original sin for many, many years. And I found mimetic theory and its anthropology to be a fascinating structure for viewing this doctrine and our human heritage. What I most appreciated was Mr. Alison's "retro-analysis" of the problem of original sin. That is, he begins with the revelations/unveilings to the apostolic witnesses that the Resurrection of Jesus caused. In this sense, he presents the unfolding of doctrine as actually the unfolding of experience. Just lovely. From this vantage point of the Resurrection, Mr. A. works back to the apostolic realization of the mimetic nature of human behavior and its involvement with death and violence. Then, my mind comes to Mr. A's point about God's indifference to death as opposed to our cultural obsession, as it were, with it. Last, I come to the point of the liberation that the book teaches: The Resurrection of Jesus shows that our forgiveness is ultimately our freedom from the obsession and the violence caused by our misapprehension of how we can or should behave. That is, we learn to see, to realize the nature of our mimetic behavior and its violence and can have the grace, if you will, to leave it behind. I will quote just a little from page 119: ". . . we can see that the only way we are able to appreciate our true condition as humans-marked-by-death is precisely as it is revealed to us that that condition is unnecessary. It is in this way that the doctrine of original sin is the culmination of the revealed understanding of being human: the shape of divine forgiveness revealed in the resurrection of Jesus shows itself to stretch into our congenital involvement with death. The doctrine of original sin is the doctrine of the un-necessity of death."

[Brett Salkeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books where you are simply overwhelmed at the genius of the author. James Alison is at the same time creative and traditional, a thinker whose Catholic sensibility is so finely honed that even when he says something that no one in the tradition has ever said before it just sounds right. Once his basic thesis has been articulate, namely that original sin (like the Trinity) could never have been understood without the fact of the Resurrection, it seems obvious. But beyond that, Alison uses this thesis to cast so much light on the meaning of Jesus, the Cross and the Church that what one used to think about such things seems amateurish. The Scriptures simply come alive in Alison's prose.

This would get 5 stars from me except for two things. First, I felt like there were one or two loose ends that never got resolved, though it is entirely possible that that was the fault of this reader, and not the author. Second, and relatedly, this book is written at a very high level. Fortunately non-specialists have access to the basic thrust of Alison's thought in his much simpler, but equally brilliant, Knowing Jesus.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and thoughtful exploration of what made humans human and the on-going struggle with that process.

[Jesse Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alison makes original sin, a doctrine I've been somewhat uncomfortable with, into something reasonable and necessary. He argues against a "foundational" approach that starts with Adam sinning. Instead, he shows how Jesus's life, death, and resurrection reveals a new view of God and humanity. God is understood to have nothing to do with death. This development started in Hebrew Scriptures as God became less of a jealous, sometimes violent God among many gods to the one creator God. Human culture, on the other hand, is shown to be founded on exclusion and scapegoating. Our response must be one of repentance, forgiveness, and hope. Fairly orthodox stuff in the end.

My main questions are on topics not addressed. I wonder how Alison would engage with Wes Howard-Brook or Karen Armstrong's Fields of Blood. Or anabaptist theology. It seems like it'd be a useful dialogue, but Alison seems to avoid talking about empire, probably not wanting to create an identity "over against" something.

[Jacques-jude Lépine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genuine masterpiece of theology and anthropology. Not easy to read, long sentences and academic style, but the analysis is worth the effort. Hard to summarize. Forgiveness and resurrection are at the center.

[Chris Waddle]

This is the greatest theology book I have ever read. I can say with no hesitation that this book demonstrates that Christianity is True and livable and helps to sustain human flourishing proudly. Thank God for this book and for James Alison.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant, thorough, insightful treatment of original sin in light of Girard's mimetic theory. At times the language was dense, but staying with it tenaciously was richly rewarded with a mature, sensible, credible light on the revelation of salvation.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

philosophy,nonfiction,science

[David Doel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book, "The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes," does not necessarily suggest the deep theology the reader is about to be immersed in.

Ecclesial Hypostasis
Soteriology
Mysterium Caecitatis
Concupiscence
Alterity

If these terms regularly roll off your tongue, this may be a book for you. If you need to look them up, avoid this book! Even Google does not handle all of these terms.

This author's writing style consists of overly long, convoluted sentences composed of overly long words (why use two syllables when I can express the same meaning with four?).

The reason I gave the book a second star is because I sense that the message is one worth hearing. What is needed is a version for a more typical person.

A note to editors: James Alison's and indeed any author's vocabulary is what it is. It is the job of an editor to make the author's work readable by the intended audience. Thus, when the author uses words such as anterior or soteriology, the editor ought to either persuade the author to replace these with more commonplace expressions or provide a glossary to help readers understand the meaning intended by the author. Perhaps there is an important nuance to anterior that is not expressed by preceding; but the reader will only google anterior and the nuance will be lost.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie, it was difficult, difficult. I gave it five stars because what I did understand opened up new and fruitful ways of looking at old problems. And I presume that what I didn't understand was of the same caliber. The whole idea of mimetic desire is powerful and transformative, once one gets this idea, the victimization prevalent in society just seems so obvious and prevalent. The idea that it is this which constitutes original sin is profound and prolific. The idea too that we only discover the lie of victimization through Christ sounds much saner and more Catholic than the idea that the state of original sin is in some way indicative of "original nature".

A review shouldn't go one all day, but I do recommend it if you are ready for a bit of a slog; it is insightful powerful and even beautiful at times, and I'm grateful to have read it. It leaves me with questions, but until I have made a more thorough study of it I'll keep them to myself.

[Humberto Maiztegui · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is time to assume de Original Liberation, in the path of the revelation of God of the Hebrews in Exodus. No more a theology of sin, but a theology of grace and shalom. The Roman Catholic Tehologian Queiruga just afirm this way as is in the Theology of Liberation in Latin America.

+Humberto - Porto Alegre
(Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil)

[Sister Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just FYI, this was Alison's doctoral dissertation, despite being written in an almost conversational style. I had to read it twice in a row just to read it once, but it was well worth the effort. There are some amazing insights in Alison's bringing Rene Girard's thought to bear on the issue of Original Sin. He takes all the moralism out while actually upping the ante with his robust theology of Original Sin. This is a book I think I will need to read annually. It has a tremendous amount to offer the reader--and the Church.