Daniel Wilmoth

In the book of Exodus, God commands Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. They flee into the desert, where they camp near Mount Sinai. God descends on the trembling mountain in fire, covering it in billowing smoke. God summons Moses, and on Mount Sinai God gives him the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments include basic instructions for handling other people. Murder, adultery, theft, and false witness are prohibited. The social theorist René Girard points out that the final commandment differs from those that precede it in addressing not our actions but our desires.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17 NIV)

Girard argues that the tenth commandment addresses an aspect of our desire that generates the behaviors prohibited in the commandments that precede it. We want what we see our neighbors having or even what we see our neighbors wanting. Such “mimetic” desire creates competition and conflict.

If the Decalogue devotes its final commandment to prohibiting desire for whatever belongs to the neighbor, it is because it lucidly recognizes in that desire the key to the violence prohibited in the four commandments that precede it. If we ceased to desire the goods of our neighbor, we would never commit murder or adultery or theft or false witness. If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous.¹

Girard errs in claiming that the wrongs addressed in the Ten Commandments are always caused by mimetic desire. Mimetic desire can cause us to harm others, but not all harmful desire is mimetic. When Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, he explains that all of the commandments, including the one against coveting, depend on two more general commandments about attitude.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37 – 40 ESV)

However, mimetic desire does shape our attitudes. In designating two commandments addressing attitude as the greatest commandments, Jesus prioritizes nurturing proper attitudes. The Bible describes several spiritual disciplines through which attitudes can be reformed, including prayer, ritual, and meditation. If our desires can reflect what we see in others as Girard describes, then we can also improve our attitudes by choosing who we see. Socializing can also be a spiritual discipline.

The social transmission of attitudes is often described in the Bible using the metaphor of yeast. Modern bread is typically leavened using baker’s yeast. When the Bible was written, bread was leavened using sourdough culture. Unlike baker’s yeast, sourdough culture reproduces well in dough. A dollop of sourdough culture can reproduce until it permeates enough dough to feed a multitude.

In the same way that sourdough culture can reproduce in dough, attitudes can reproduce in communities. We can harness the social transmission of attitudes by joining communities with the attitudes to which we aspire. In the book of Hebrews, Christians are encouraged to aid one another by meeting together.

…let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another…. (Hebrews 10:24 – 25 NIV)

However, harmful as well as helpful attitudes can spread through communities. For this reason, Paul urges the church in Corinth to expel anyone whose behavior is inconsistent with their profession of Christianity.

Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?  Get rid of the old yeast…. you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler…. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:6 – 13 NIV)

The social transmission of attitudes not only provides a means of reshaping ourselves but also a means of reshaping others. If we can achieve the appropriate attitudes ourselves, those attitudes will spread through our communities. In the Bible, the lives of the people of God are described as testimonies. For example, Jesus teaches,

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:14 – 16 NIV)

Girard is right that the tenth commandment addresses mimetic desire and that mimetic desire can create conflict. However, mimetic desire is not always harmful. Mimetic desire can be harnessed to reform our attitudes and the attitudes of others.

Meeting together is, like other spiritual disciplines, fundamental to the practice of Christianity. Christians are instructed to meet together but also instructed to exercise caution about the character of those they meet. Because attitudes spread through communities, we can improve our attitudes by joining good communities, and we can improve our communities by modelling good attitudes. Members form communities, and communities shape members.

1. René Girard, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001), 11 – 12.

 

Someone who associates regularly with certain people, for conversation, or for parties, or simply for the sake of sociability, is bound either to come to resemble them or else to convert them….  Since the risk is thus so great, we should be cautious in entering into such relations…, remembering that it is impossible to rub up against someone covered with soot without getting sooty oneself.

Epictetus, Discourses

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus visits the temple in Jerusalem with his disciples. In an open area of the temple are receptacles for donations. He sees rich people put in large amounts. He also sees a poor widow donate two lepta, the smallest coins in circulation. He tells his disciples,

Truly…this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on. (Mark 12:43 – 44 NIV)

We find such charity by the poor praised in the Bible. For example, Paul writes,

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.  For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. (2 Corinthians 8:1 – 3 NIV)

Charity by the poor is confusing. We expect the poor to receive rather than to give charity. Why should those who need money give away what little they have? Surely whatever can be accomplished with their meager donations can be accomplished with less sacrifice by others. Continue reading “Charity by the poor”

Never say about anything, “I’ve lost it,” but rather, “I’ve given it back.”

Epictetus, Handbook

In her popular book The Secret, Rhonda Byrne claims that we can get whatever we want using the “law of attraction.” Byrne writes that what we think about, we attract. To obtain anything, we need only focus on what we want.

It is the law that determines the complete order in the Universe, every moment of your life, and every single thing you experience in your life. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, the law of attraction is forming your entire life experience, and this all-powerful law is doing that through your thoughts.¹

Byrne claims the law of attraction has been recognized by many religions, including Christianity. She elaborates a process for using the law of attraction that includes three steps: ask, believe, and receive. She quotes Jesus discussing those aspects of prayer.

Despite the parallel between the process Byrne provides and Christian prayer, The Secret and the Bible relate to our desires in radically different ways. The Secret focuses on conforming the universe to our will. In the Bible, we are taught that our instinctual desires can mislead us. The Bible focuses not on conforming the universe to our will, but on conforming our will to the will of God. Continue reading “The power of prayer”

The natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance.  What you own will eventually own you.

Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living

Religious practice has declined in the United States. The share of the population describing themselves as religious fell from 65 percent in 2012 to 54 percent in 2017.¹ The share affiliated with any specific religion fell from 84 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in 2021.² During that period, the share affiliated with Christianity fell from 78 percent to 63 percent.

However, the decline in religious affiliation was not accompanied by an equivalent rise in atheism or agnosticism.³ While the share describing themselves as religious fell by 11 percentage points, the share describing themselves as spiritual fell by only 3 percentage points, from 78 percent in 2012 to 75 percent in 2017.⁴

The decline in religious practice was a decline in formal aspects of religion like ritual. Ritual does not obviously transform the world in a constructive way, and some may have abandoned religious practice because they see little value in ritual. However, ritual is a powerful tool for shaping our lives.

Continue reading “Rediscovering ritual”

When someone tells you something is wrong, they’re usually right.  When they tell you how to fix it, they’re usually wrong.

Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living

The Tao Te Ching presents the basic principles of Taoism in just a few dozen short versions. The Chinese word “tao” means way, and Taoism provides guidance for living in a way that corresponds with the way of the universe. The text was written thousands of years ago and is attributed to Lao Tzu, a name that can be translated as “Old Master.”

In the time since it was written, the world has changed dramatically, with an explosion of new technology that has greatly improved standards of living. Given the benefits of technology, we may be surprised to find technology viewed skeptically in the Tao Te Ching, where we read,

Let every state be simple
like a small village with few people
There may be tools to speed things up
ten or a hundred times
yet no one will care to use them
There may be boats and carriages
yet they will remain without riders…¹

Technology enables us to obtain more of what we desire. However, obtaining more of what we desire may not be sufficient to live well. The Tao Te Ching warns,

There is no greater loss than losing Tao
No greater curse than desire
No greater tragedy than discontentment
No greater fault than selfishness²

To live well, we must desire well. We must be wise. In the Tao Te Ching, to be wise is to relinquish desire. We find a skeptical view of technology in the Tao Te Ching because we may use technology in the service of desires we have failed to relinquish.

Continue reading “Knowledge versus wisdom”

It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults.  They are inescapable.  Just try to escape your own.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.71