CCD

“Like Jesus, Satan...presents himself as a model for our desires, and he is certainly easier to imitate than Christ, for he counsels us to abandon ourselves to all our inclinations in defiance of morality and its prohibitions. If we listen to Satan, who may sound like a very progressive and likeable educator, we may feel initially that we are ‘liberated,’ but this impression does not last because [he] deprives us of everything that protects us from rivalistic imitation. Rather than warning us of the trap that awaits us, Satan makes us fall into it. He applauds the idea that prohibitions are of no use and that transgressing them contains no danger. The road on which Satan starts us is broad and easy; it is the superhighway of mimetic crisis.” — René Girard, ‘I See Satan Fall Like Lightning’ (trans. James G. Williams), ch. 5