ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter I argued that the attempts of recent scholars to define an essence of violence have failed. I also argued that violence cannot be overcome by more violence, but only by finding creative alternatives, new possibilities that emerge not out of mimetic rivalry or lack but out of generous desire whose resources are like a well springing up ever and again with newness of life and beauty, and I showed how this is illustrated in biblical representations of divine cruelty. But I did not develop any account of violence in place of the definitions I rejected. Neither did I offer more than hints about how the resources of creative alternatives could be identified and encouraged, or how human creativity could be directed to flourishing rather than to ever more elaborate technologies of violence. Without some way of tapping in to creative resources, the mere theoretical recognition of them is at best a pious affirmation, at worst tantalizing cruelty. In this final introductory chapter I propose therefore to take the idea of narrative and to show how narrative works to remedy both these deficiencies. Using narrative it becomes possible to give an account of violence in terms of function rather than of essence, and also to indicate where resources for creative alternatives are to be found. Having developed these ideas at a theoretical level in this chapter, I shall then proceed in the rest of the book to trace the genealogy of violence and creativity in Western religious thought and practice.
