Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

It can be argued that the structure of society—whether political, social, economic, religious, or even personal—is built upon structures of acceptable blame. If we are convinced that such sacrifices are sufficient in God’s eyes, or whomever we attribute as the author of the system of order we seek to uphold, then we can be persuaded that the sacrifice has “redeemed” us, or satisfactorily “paid” for the “sin” we have committed. But what happens when we can no longer persuade each other about that redemptive power of particular sacrifices? The present era is replete with shocking claims and counterclaims, arguments aired across every medium, disputes between people which have resulted in physical assaults and deaths, and which commentators and scholars rightly discuss with great concern. This paper explores these current critical areas of failed persuasion as symptoms of a deeper and much more profound crisis in our religious, social and political order. This crisis is based in the architecture of blame and sacrifice, rooted in Biblical doctrines and instantiated in western history from about the time of Socrates. In order to examine and elucidate root causes, I use rhetorical theory as a means of making visible the structures of discourse, the social, political and religious foundations upon which they rest, and the rhetorical ecosystems which they have generated. We will thereby also come to see, as theory promises, how their own internal logics have brought about their deterioration and decay.