indiscriminate, the embrace itself is conditional. In Chapter VII this asymmetrical dialectic (along with other reasons) leads me to insist on human nonviolence while “granting” God the prerogative of exercising violence against “false prophets” and “beasts” if they refuse to be redeemed by the wounds they inflicted on the Crucified. The practice of “embrace,” with its concomitant struggle against deception, injustice, and violence, is intelligible only against the backdrop of a powerful, contagious, and destructive