The Enlightenment Critique of Religion - Girard's Attack on Christianity

Girard: Christianity is the source of our capacity for self-criticism, sensitivity to victims. He says we see it as a corrupting institution that tries to control us by instilling guilt and fear. In his late writings, Nietzsche argues that Christian sympathy for victims innervates society; saps its strength. Girard: The Enlightenment at least wants to preserve Christian ethics even if it thinks it can dispense with rest of Christianity's apparatus.