Redemptive
violence is defined as a belief that "violence is a useful mechanism for control and order",[1] or, alternately, a belief in "using violence to rid and save the world from evil".[2] The
French Revolution involved violence that was depicted as redemptive by revolutionaries,[3][4] and decolonization theorist
Frantz Fanon was an advocate of redemptive violence.[5]Pacifism rejects the idea that violence can be redemptive.[6][7]
Myth
The
myth of redemptive violence is the story of the
victory of order over chaos by means of violence. It is the
ideology of conquest, the gods favour those who conquer.[8]
Redemptive violence is the means by which
the powers that be support the Domination System; another term coined by
Walter Wink. The domination system is described as a network of oppressive relations such as
classism,
racism, and
sexism and the role that violence plays in preserving them. “It is characterized by unjust economic relations, oppressive political relations, biased race relations,
patriarchal gender relations,
hierarchical power relations, and the use of violence to maintain them all.”[9]
Sculpture of Perseus holding up the severed head of Medusa
In early history
The myth of redemptive violence can be traced all the way back into biblical times. For instance, the
Babylonian creation story from
1250 BCE follows the same blueprint as virtually every story of redemptive violence put forward today. In this story, known as the
Enuma Elish, the god
Marduk, defeats the god
Tiamat in a fierce battle, and then creates the world using her body. He then uses the blood of another slain god,
Qingu to create humans.[10]
Depictions of redemptive violence can also be seen in various art forms throughout early human history.[11]
“In a typical segment, Bluto abducts a screaming and kicking Olive Oyl, Popeye’s girlfriend. When Popeye attempts to rescue her, the massive Bluto beats his diminutive opponent to a pulp, while Olive Oyl helplessly wrings her hands. At the last moment, as our hero oozes to the floor, and Bluto is trying, in effect, to rape Olive Oyl, a can of spinach pops from Popeye’s pocket and spills into his mouth. Transformed by this gracious infusion of power, he easily demolishes the villain and rescues his beloved. The format never varies. Neither party ever gains any insight or learns from these encounters. They never sit down and discuss their differences. Repeated defeats do not teach Bluto to honour Olive Oyl’s humanity, and repeated pummellings do not teach Popeye to swallow his spinach before the fight.”
— Walter Wink, The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millenium
High Noon (1952 poster)
Wink points out that no matter what happens,
Popeye continues to use
violence as the only means of solving problems because he never learns that there is another option. He sees violence as a necessity; as the only possible way to solve a problem, and never learns that any other method would solve the problem.
^Campbell, Maggie; Vollhardt, Johanna Ray (2014). "Fighting the Good Fight: The Relationship Between Belief in Evil and Support for Violent Policies". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 40 (1): 16–33.
doi:
10.1177/0146167213500997.
PMID24002806.
S2CID25517213.
^Duong, Kevin (2017). "The People as a Natural Disaster: Redemptive Violence in Jacobin Political Thought". American Political Science Review. 111 (4): 786–800.
doi:
10.1017/S0003055417000260.
S2CID149297263.
^Hallward, Peter (2011). "Fanon and Political Will". Living Fanon: Global Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 213–224.
ISBN978-0-230-11999-4.
Beaumont, Thomas E. (2020). "The Phenomenology of Redemptive Violence". Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. 45 (4): 184–199.
doi:
10.1177/0304375421999175.
S2CID232233904.
Bielefeld, Shelley (2021). "Cashless welfare transfers and Australia's First Nations: redemptive or repressive violence?". Griffith Law Review. 30 (4): 597–620.
doi:
10.1080/10383441.2021.1996891.
S2CID242072134.
Cothran, Boyd (2014). Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence. UNC Press Books.
ISBN978-1-4696-1861-6.
Dalton, Jacob P. (2012). "Sometimes Love Don't Feel Like It Should: Redemptive Violence in Tantric Buddhism". Sins and Sinners: Perspectives from Asian Religions. Brill.
ISBN978-90-04-23200-6.
Dalton, Russell W. (2015). "(Un)Making Violence Through Media Literacy and Theological Reflection: Manichaeism, Redemptive Violence, and Hollywood Films". Religious Education. 110 (4): 395–408.
doi:
10.1080/00344087.2015.1063963.
S2CID141818053.
Duong, Kevin (2020). The Virtues of Violence: Democracy Against Disintegration in Modern France. Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-005841-8.
Forbes, Ella (1998). ""By My Own Right Arm": Redemptive Violence and the 1851 Christiana, Pennsylvania Resistance". The Journal of Negro History. 83 (3): 159–167.
doi:
10.2307/2649012.
JSTOR2649012.
S2CID141075568.
Harison, Casey (2011). "Redemptive violence and stuttering across the Atlantic: The Who's "My Generation" and Herman Melville's Billy Budd in historical perspective". Atlantic Studies. 8 (1): 49–68.
doi:
10.1080/14788810.2011.539787.
S2CID161895257.
Lavender, Wayne (2015). The Worldview of Redemptive Violence in the US. Springer.
ISBN978-1-137-47911-2.
McDowell, John C. (2010). ""Wars Not Make One Great": Redeeming the Star Wars Mythos from Redemptive Violence Without Amusing Ourselves to Death". The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. 22 (1): 4.
doi:
10.3138/jrpc.22.1.004.
Morris, Barry (1992). "Frontier colonialism as a culture of terror". Journal of Australian Studies. 16 (35): 72–87.
doi:
10.1080/14443059209387119.