This magisterial reflection on the history and destiny of the West compares Greco-Roman civilization and the Judeo-Christian tradition in order to understand what both unites and divides them. Mediation, understood as a collective, symbolic experience, gives society unity and meaning, putting human beings in contact with a universal object known as the world or reality. But unity has a price: the very force that enables peaceful coexistence also makes us prone to conflict. As a result, in order to find a common point of convergence—of at-one-ment—someone must be sacrificed. Sacrifice, then, is the historical pillar of mediation. It was endorsed in a cosmic-religious sense in antiquity and rejected for ethical reasons in modernity, where the Judeo-Christian tradition plays an intermediate role in condemning sacrificial violence as such, while accepting sacrifice as a voluntary act offered to save other human beings. Today, as we face the collapse of all shared mediations, this intermediating solution offers a way out of our moral and cultural plight.
ContentsPreface to the Second VolumeThe Christian Mediation1. The Problem of the Sources2. The Marriage at Cana and the Temple Protest3. The Enigma of the Eucharist in the Fourth Gospel4. Sacrifice, Myth, and Exegesis in Christianity5. Mary’s Mediation6. Crosses Ancient and Modern7. The Cross in the Modern WorldConclusion. A Point of Arrival and DepartureNotesBibliographyIndex
