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Let me end this series by answering that question.
First, let's circle back to Girard's own pessimistic conclusion, that Christianity predicts its own failure. Or, more simply put, if it's up to us to save ourselves then things aren't looking very good. We're reminded again of the famous assessment J.R.R. Tolkien once shared in a correspondence:
Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.
One of the limitations of moral influence viewpoints is utopianism, the belief that humans can save themselves from within history. But the Christian vision of salvation is, to borrow again from Tolkien, eucatastrophic. We can only be saved from beyond and outside of history. Salvation is eschatological.
Relatedly, human moral performance does nothing to solve the fundamental human predicament: Death. And this has implications for Girard's theory. Recall in this series how I put survival-based fears alongside mimetic desire as a source of scapegoating. If that is true, then our ability to step away from sacred violence demands a metaphysics of hope. As the book of Hebrews says, the fear of death is the power of the devil in our lives and Christ was raised from the dead to destroy that power. Our ability to step into the moral vision of Girard's theory, standing in solidarity with the victim, requires the ontological assurance provided by the resurrection. Otherwise, survival-based fears will continue to drive us toward self-interest. Recall, again, my example of lifeboats on the Titanic. A capacity for giving away my life for others is created by the conviction that sacrificial acts of love will be eschatologically vindicated. If not, well, every man for himself.
Simply put, while important and necessary, salvation cannot be reduced to human moral performance. History will prove to be a long defeat. In the final analysis, salvation is eschatological and ontological. We will not be able to save ourselves. We await the eucatastrophe.
