Salvation Story: A Biblical Commentary on Human Violence and Godly Peace

Salvation Story responds to Douglas John Halls claim that the world is waiting for gospel. Humanity needs a clearer understanding that the gospel has come to redeem. The work of Rene Girard an anthropologist demonstrates that our human culture is founded on the concealing of its own violence in religious myths and symbols. Girard had hoped to enter into dialogue with Richard Dawkins whose expertise is evolution but this encounter never happened. Dawkins observed how evolution is blind not unlike the blindness created by human myth and religion. Bringing together the work of Girard and Dawkins provides a lens for reading scripture. Salvation Story is written to challenge religious fundamentalists and atheists alike as well as the rest of us--all those who realize that our current approaches to the Bible are woefully inadequate. This book digs into these ancient texts to discover what we have been hiding from regarding our own evolutionary inheritance in order to discover the God who comes to save us from our own self-destruction. Using the mimetic theory of Rene Girard and basing his discussion on illuminating biblical texts David Froemming invites us to rethink the salvation story in an intriguing way that can both reveal and transform the human condition and enliven the Christian witness. It is an honor to commend his work. --Douglas John Hall C.M. Th.D. Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology McGill University Montreal Froemmings coupling of Dawkins idea of the selfish gene and Girards mimetic theory for a more contemporarily persuasive theology is bold smart and necessary. It should catalyze a softening of the positions of materialistic evolutionary biologists and scientifically-unengaged theologians. Would-be peacemakers of all stripes looking for a unified theory let Froemming introduce you to memes and mimetic theory in the figure of the Christ! --Duane Larson Systematic Theologian; past President Wartburg Theological Seminary It is astounding how richly different Bible readings become when the lens of Girards thought is brought near them. Froemming has woven together a challenging educating and unashamedly Lutheran narration of our salvation that is sure to animate preaching discussion and community building in any congregation that reads it. --James Alison Priest; Theologian; Author Froemming invites readers to juxtapose the endemic violence of our world with the world of Scripture. With uncanny apprehension of our penchant for violence he applies Girards analysis of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating to biblical texts and his Scripture commentaries are mirrors to see our own complicity in perpetuating violence. The salvation story of Jesus crucified is the hermeneutical key to unlock the prison door and set us free from the vicious cycles destroying our world. --Craig L. Nessan Academic Dean Wartburg Theological Seminary David R. Froemming serves as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Previously he served as a Director of Religious Education in the Catholic Diocese of Madison WI and Archdiocese of Milwaukee WI. He holds a Bachelors in Religious Studies from Marian University of Fond du Lac WI a Masters in Religious Studies from Edgewood College Madison WI and an MDiv degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary Dubuque IA.