Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Exclusion and Embrace: Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation,
Miroslav Volf, Abingdon Press, 1996, page 98

After Cain's assault on his bother Abel, G-d places a mark on him, perhaps as Girard suggests, as a system of differentiation that protects from "mimetic violence". However, Volf sees more than that:

More important than differentiation is the grace that undergirds it. The same G-d who did not regard Cain's scanty offering, bestowed kindness upon the murderer whose life was in danger. G-d did not abandon Can to the cycle of exclusions he himself had set in motion. Labeled by the mark of G-d, Cain belonged to G-d and was protected by G-d even as he settled "away from the presence of the L-rd."