As we progress, some advice from Girard to keep in mind. -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 14:37:13 02/21/08 Thu
Author: j.jackson
Subject: As we progress, some advice from Girard to keep in mind.

I think this passage will keep us grounded in the trajectory of his thought. From _Things Hidden_:

"From this point onwards we shall take it for granted that the victimage mechanisms exist and that their role in the establishment of religion, culture and humanity itself is an established fact, no longer open to doubt. Actually, I never lose sight of the point that this is only a hypothesis. I am hardly likely to forget it, for the very reason that the material remaining to be studied here [Judeo-Christian texts, psychopathology] will supply us with new proofs, and increasingly striking ones" (141).

His point: he believes he has made a strong argument for his notion of violence acting as the cornerstone of religions and culture--that its primary role is one of peacemaking or peacekeeping.

His fear: that we'll now jump into the areas of study where he sees mythic (sacrificial) thinking most prevalent--namely biblical/theological notions of sacrifice and modern psychoanalysis. He sees both of these institutions as being steeped in mythic thinking and their proponents the least likely to give it up. This is why he makes this disclaimer at the beginning of this section.

His hope: that he will provide us with a new sort of apologetic for the truth of the Judeo-Christian faith--that it is not one of a number of sacrificial religions history has seen, that people who call it yet just another myth are wrong. It is anti-mythic. It uses the old mythic structures in order to expose them and tear them down, to name them so that we may give these structures up. It is a staging and renunciation of the mechanism of violence, a rejection and a way out of the violence humanity has thrust upon itself. If religion has always been a way of creating and maintaining peace, then Girard argues that the title given to Christ "the Prince of Peace" is especially fitting.

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