COV&R-Bulletin No. 2 (March 1992)
COV&R-Bulletin No. 2 (March 1992)
Letter from the Publisher
The response to the first issue of the Bulletin was good, and we now have enough material to produce a second issue. I want to emphasize that the Bulletin depends upon its readers of the Bulletin and to encourage you to send us notes, announcements, and short reviews. We want to publish as many contributions as we can. We especially appreciate short reviews that give an overview of a book, but are also interested in longer reviews that invite further discussion (In this issue of the Bulletin, you will find a review of James Williams's book. We offer it as an important starting point for discussing the mimetic model). The space of the Bulletin does not allow many long contributions. We will try to have at least one significant contribution in every issue.
When sending us articles for publications we ask two things. First, if it is at all possible, your contribution should be written in English. Secondly, if you use a computer -- as most of us today do -- please send a diskette. Both these save us valuable time and money.
There is good news from Innsbruck. Raymund Schwager was able to create a new post at the Institut für Dogmatik in Innsbruck that is designed especially to support his research project. Since November 1, 1991, Mag. Dietmar Regensburger has been working in this position. Among other things, Regensburger will oversee the bibliography of the mimetic model. It will be stored in the data bank of the School of Theology of the University in Innsbruck, and parts of it will be published in each issue of the Bulletin.
A couple of words about financial matters: (1) Please take notice that the bank and account number has changed in Innsbruck. We have found this form of accounting makes it easier and cheaper for our European colleagues to send their dues. (2) Those who paid their dues in Fall, 1991, won't have to pay again this year. (3) Some sent us their membership form but forgot to send us their dues -- please send them now.
Wolfgang Palaver
Bibliography of the Secondary Literature to René Girard
1) Books concerning the entire work of René Girard
Carpaneto, Alberto: René Girard e il pensiero dell'origine. Torino 1988/89.
René Girard com teólogos da libertaçao. Um diálogo sobre ídolos e sacrifícios. Hg. v. Hugo Assmann. Petrópolis: Vozes 1991.
Herr, Edouard: La violence. Nécessité ou liberté? Préface de J. Y. Calvez. Paris 1990.
Kaptein, Roel - Tijmes, Pieter: De Ander als Model en Obstakel. Een inleiding in het werk van René Girard. Kampen: Kok Agora 1986.
Kim, Hyun: René Girard ou la structure de la violence. Seul 1987.
Lascaris, André: Advocaat van de Zondebok: Het werk van René Girard en het Evangelie van Jezus. Hilversum 1987.
Mfutila, Kamba: Violence sacrificielle et revelation du sacre chez René Girard. Innsbruck 1987.
Orsini, Christine: La pensée de René Girard. Paris 1986.
2) Articles concerning the entire work of René Girard
Achterhuis, Hans: 'Leviathan' en de mimese: Prolegomena voor een filosofie van de schaarste. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 111-126.
Bottani, Livio: La mimesi, la violenza e il sacro: nota sul pensiero di René Girard. In: Filosofia (Turin) 38 (1987) 53-66.
De Lange, Frits: Denken met geweld: René Girard als modern Frans filosoof. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 55-92.
De Michele, Girolamo: Dal disordine all'ordine. René Girard, un pensatore "forte". In: Il Mulino (1986) H.307 716-731.
De Michele, Girolamo: Le aporie della teologia vittimaria di René Girard. In: Intersezioni (1990) H.1.
Delarge, Fréderic: Désir, violence du désir: autor de René Girard. In: Alternatives non violentes 65 (1987) 2-7.
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre: L'autonomie du social. In: Centre de recherche en epistemologie appliquee (Hg.), Sciences cognitives et Sciences sociales (Cahiers du CREA 10). Paris 1986, 229-273.
Gillespie, Gerald: Bible Lessons: The Gospel According to Frye, Girard, Kermode, and Voegelin. In: Comparative Literature 38 (1986) H.3 289-297.
Jauffret, Eric: Court Essai sur le sacrifice: Hypothèses de René Girard. In: (Hg.), Révolution et sacrifice au Mexique. Paris 1986, 231-280.
Kaptein, Roel: Het menselijk geweld: het werk van René Girard. In: Vrede 23 (1986) H.8/9 4-7.
Kaptein, Roel: Mimese en zondebok: enkele consequenties van Girards werk. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 13-27.
Kofmann, Sarah: The Narcistic Woman: Freud and Girard. In: Diacritics 10 (1980) Fall 36-45.
Lavialle, Christian: La déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, à la lumière de René Girard. In: Les Petites Affiches 44 (1987) H.13 7-11.
Luijf, Reginald: Die vreemde Abélard toch: Over mimetische begeerte en gelijkheid. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 127-151.
Moi, Toril: The Missing Mother: the Oedipal Rivalries of René Girard. In: Diacritics 12 (1982) Summer 21-31.
Oosten, Jarich: Het geweld bij René Girard. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 209-222.
Raphael, Frederic: The Scapegoat Mechanism. In: New Society, Nov.20 (1987) 25-28.
Reineke, Martha J.: The Mother in Mimesis: Kristeva and Girard on Violence and the Sacred. In: Crownfield, David (Hg.), Religion, Women, Psychoanalysis: Essays on Julia Kristeva. New York 1991.
Renouvin, Bertrand: René Girard lecteur de Hamlet. In: Cité 13 (1986/09) 34-38.
Rombaut, Marc: Débat avec René Girard au sujet de son livre Le bouc émissaire. In: Université Catholique de Louvain (Hg.), Michel Serres et René Girard à Louvain-la-Neuve. Louvain 1986, 35-61.
Thomas, Konrad: Wenn kein Verantwortlicher zu finden ist: der Sündenbock-Mechanismus. In: Thomas, Konrad (Hg.), Schuld: Zusammenhänge und Hintergründe. Frankfurt/M. 1990, 165-183.
Tijmes, Pieter: De twee hypothesen van Girard. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 28-52.
Van Vucht Tijssen, Lieteke: Girard, 'Entzauberung' en emoties: een cultuursociologische benadering. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 93-110.
Veronese, A. - Delarge, F. u.a.: L'économie, ruse de la violence. In: Alternatives non violentes 65 (1987).
Wallace, Mark I.: Postmodern Biblicism: The Challenge of René Girard for Contemporary Theology. In: Modern Theology 5 (1989) 309-325.
White, Hayden: Ethnological "Lie" and Mythical "Truth". In: Diacritics 8 (1978) Spring 2-9.
3) Interviews with René Girard
An Interview with René Girard. In: Diacritics 8 (1978) Spring 31-54.
Paradoksets Dekonstruktion. Interview med René Girard ved Jørgen Jørgensen. In: Paradoks, Nr. 1 (1991) 34-37.
4) Reviews about single works of René Girard
Bailey, Lee W.: Rezension zu: René Girard, The Scapegoat. In: Journal of the American Academy of Religion 55 (1987) 832-833.
Bernardi Guardi, M.: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: Messaggero Veneto, Jan.16 (1988).
Burrell, David B.: Rezension zu: René Girard, The Scapegoat. In: Books and Religion 16 (1989) S.6f.
Busche, Jürgen: Das Ende der Gewalt: Die religiöse Anthropologie des Franzosen René Girard. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Okt.8 (1986).
Carera, Carlo: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: La Stampa, Dez.18 (1987).
Carrara, Alberto: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: Eco di Bergamo, Nov.20 (1987).
Cesari, Severino: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: Il Manifesto, Okt.11 und Nov.23 (1987).
De Benedetti, Riccardo: Girard, violenza e verità. In: Alfabeta (1986) H.81 S.29.
Domenach, Jean-Marie: René Girard et le bouc émissaire. In: Professions et Enterprises 739 (1986/01) 5-6.
Gibbs, Lee W.: Rezension zu: René Girard, The Scapegoat. In: Journal of Ritual Studies 1 (1987) 132-133.
Janda, Josef: Rezension zu: René Girard, Hiob - ein Weg aus der Gewalt. Zürich 1990. In: Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift 139 (1991) 318f.
Jenkins, William: Rezension zu René Girard, Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World. In: Christianity and Literature 38 (1989) H.3 74-77.
Johnson, William A.: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: Centennial Review (1987) 452-453.
Knauer, Peter: Rezension zu: René Girard, Das Ende der Gewalt. In: Theologie und Philosophie 61 (1986) 450-453.
Lumacher, Ned: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock, und: P. Dumouchel (Hg.), Violence et verité. In: Modern Language Notes 101 (1986/09) H.4 949-954.
McKenna, Andrew J.: Rezension zu: René Girard, Hiob. In: Substance 53 (1987) 82-83.
North, Robert: Rezension zu: René Girard, Job, the Victim of His People. In: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 51 (1989) 515-517.
Palaver, Wolfgang: Rezension zu: René Girard, Das Heilige und die Gewalt. Zürich 1987. In: Bibel und Kirche 46 (1991) 196f.
Palmer, N.B.: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: Choice, Jan. (1987) S.67.
Severino, Emanuele: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: L'Europeo, Dez.19 (1987).
Simon, Ulrich: Rezension zu: René Girard, Job, the Victim of His People. In: Religious Studies 25 (1989) 139-140.
Terrier, Dominique: Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde. In: Vivre 6 (1986) 13-15.
Tillmans, W.G.: Rezension zu: René Girard, De aloude weg der boosdoeners. In: Tijdschrift voor Philosophie en Theologie 50 (1989) 221-222.
Tillmans, W.G.: Rezension zu: René Girard, De Zondebok. In: Tijdschrift voor Philosophie en Theologie 50 (1989) 221-222.
Vlach, Rebecca Adams: Rezension zu: René Girard, Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World. In: Religion and Literature 21 (1989) 101-102.
Wagner, C. Peter: Rezension zu: René Girard, The Scapegoat. In: Missiology: An International Review 16 (1988) 220-221.
Wagner, Murray L.: Rezension zu: René Girard, Der Sündenbock. In: Library Journal, Nov.1 (1986) S.102.
Watts, John D.W.: Rezension zu: René Girard, Job, the Victim of His People. In: A Baptist Theological Journal 85 (1988) S.559.
Williams, Philip G.: Rezension zu: René Girard, The Scapegoat. In: The Journal of Religion 68 (1988) 155-157.
Wilson, John: The Scapegoat. In: Margill's Literary Annual (1987) 744-748.
Winch, Peter: Inattentive Readings: The Scapegoat. In: TLS, März 20 (1987) 290-291.
5) Books with references to René Girard
Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel: The Freudian Subject. Translated by Catherine Porter. Foreword by François Roustang. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1988.
Edipo. Il teatro greco e la cultura europea. Hg. von Gentili, B. und Pretagostini, R. Rom 1986.
Feldman, Allen: Formations of Violence. The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1991.
Formenti, Carlo: Prometeo e Hermes. Colpa e origine nell'immaginario tardo-moderno. Napoli 1986.
Heusch, Luc de: Sacrifice in Africa. A Structuralist Approach. Translated by Linda O'Brian and Alice Morton. Manchester University Press 1985.
Hurlbert, James F.: Soteriologie based on a reformulation of human desire: Sebastian Moore and Raymund Schwager. Mundelein 1991.
Milbank, John: Theology and Social Theory. Beyond Secular Reason. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell 1991.
Sacrificio e società nel mondo antico. Hg. von C. Grottanelli. Bari 1988.
Serres, Michel: Hermes. Literature, Science, Philosophy. Edited by Josué V. Harari & David F. Bell. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press 1983.
Serres, Michel: Statues. Le second livre des fondations. Paris 1987.
Serres, Michel: Rome. The Book of Foundations. Translated by Felicia McCarren. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1991.
Twitchell, James: Preposterous Violence: Fables of Aggression in Modern Culture. New York: Oxford University Press 1989.
6) Articles with references to René Girard
Baudler, Georg: Weshalb Maradona weinte? In: Publik-Forum 19 (1990) H.16. 14-16.
Büchele, Herwig: Gewalt und Erlösung. Systematische Bemerkungen zum Buch von Raymund Schwager, "Brauchen wir einen Sündenbock?" In: Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 102 (1980) 206-216.
Bureau, René: Maitres et disciples dans les religions africaines. In: Studia Missionalia 37 (1988) 337-361.
Burrell, David B.: Violence, sacrifice and the gospel of Jesus. In: Books and Religion: A Monthly Review 16 (1989) 6, 13.
Cancik-Lindemaier, Hildegard: Opfersprache. Religionswissenschaftliche und religionsgeschichtliche Bemerkungen. In: Schrift der Flammen. Opfermythen und Weiblichkeitsentwürfe im 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin 1991, 38-57.
England, Eugene: Why Nephi killed Laban: reflections on the truth of the Book of Mormon Dialogue. In: A Journal of Mormon Thought 22 (1989) 32-51.
Galvin, John P.: The marvelous exchange: Raymund Schwager's interpretation of the history of soteriology. In: The Thomist 53 (1989) 675-691.
Klehr, Franz Josef: Ijob und der Gott seiner Verfolger. Bericht über eine Tagung der Diözesanakademie am 2./3. März 1991 in Weingarten. In: Bibel und Kirche 46 (1991) 186-188.
Lascaris, A.F.: De verzoeningsleer en het offerchristentum. In: Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 42 (1988) 220-242.
Levoratti, Armando J.: 'Tu no has querido sacrificio ni oblacion': Salmo 40:7; Hebreos 10:5; pt 1. In: Revista biblica 48 (1986) H.1 1-30; H.2 65-87.
Molnar, T.: Recovering A Sense of the Sacred. In: The Intercollegiate Review 17 (1982) 75-82.
Pelckmans, Paul: Eloge de l'indétermination: Une lecture de Rome. Le livre des fondations. In: Littérature et Postmodernité 14 (1986) 17-30.
Reineke, Martha J.: 'The Devils Are Come Down Upon Us': Myth, History, and the Witch as Scapegoat. In: Union Seminary Quarterly Review 44 (1990) 55-83.
Reineke, Martha J.: 'This is my body': Reflections on Abjection, Anorexia, and Medieval Women Mystics. In: Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63 (1990) 245-265.
Schwager, Raymund: Selbstorganisation und Theologie. Skizze eines Forschungsprojekts. In: Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 109 (1987) 1-19.
Schweiker, William: Sacrifice, Interpretation, and the Sacred: The Import of Gadamer and Girard for Religious Studies. In: Journal of the American Academy of Religion 55 (1987) 791-810.
Webb, Eugene: Recent French psychoanalytic thought and the psychology of religion. In: Religious Studies and Theology 8 (1988) 31-44.
Williams, James G.: Myth, aphorism, and the Christ as sign. In: Forum 5 (1989) 73-91.
Wood, Forest Ir: Averting violence: social and personal. In: Perspective in Religious Studies 14 (1987) 29-37.
7) Books applying the method and theory of René Girard for own research
Alison, James: A theology of the Holy Trinity in the light of the thought of René Girard. Oxford 1991.
Dieckmann, Bernhard: Judas als Sündenbock: eine verhängnisvolle Geschichte von Angst und Vergeltung. München 1991.
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G.: Sacred Violence. Paul's Hermeneutic of the Cross. Minneapolis: Fortress Press 1992.
Kaptein, Roel: A Corrymeela Enchiridion. 1988.
Kaptein, Roel: Abused children and the people around them. In: Centre for the study of Conflict, Univ. of Ulster (Hg.), (Understanding Conflict...and finding ways out of it 2). Coleraine 1990.
Kaptein, Roel: An Introduction to the Bible. In: Centre for the study of Conflict, Univ. of Ulster (Hg.), (Understanding conflict... and finding ways out of it 3). Coleraine 1990.
Kaptein, Roel u.a.: Finding ways to go: a discussion paper about community relations in Northern Ireland. In: Centre for the study of Conflict, Univ. of Ulster (Hg.), (Understanding Conflict...and finding ways out of it 1). Coleraine 1990.
Oughourlian, Jean-Michel: The Puppet of Desire. The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis. Translated, with an Introduction, by Eugene Webb. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1991.
Williams, James G.: The Bible, Violence, and the Sacred. Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence. Foreword by René Girard. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco 1991.
8) Articles applying the method and theory of René Girard for own research
Arias, H. Judith: Doubles in Hell: El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de Piedra. In: Hispanic Review 58 (1990) 361-377.
McKenna, Andrew J.: The Law's Delay: Cinema and Sacrifice. In: Legal Studies Forum 15 (1991) 199-213.
Pos, Sonja: Het thema van bemiddelaar en zondebok in de roman 'De donkere kamer van Damocles' van W.F. Hermans. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 155-171.
Schwager, Raymund: Dunkles im Gott Jesu Christi? Oder: Der liebende Vater und der schreckenerregende Richter. In: Bibel und Kirche 46 (1991) 165-171.
Simonse, Simon: De slaperigheid van koning Fadyet. Regicide en het zondebokmechanisme in de Nilotische Soedan. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 172-208.
Van Beek, Wouter: De zondebok en het kwaad: een ethnografische kritiek. In: Mimese an Geweld. Beschouwingen over het werk van René Girard. Hg. v. Wouter van Beek. Kampen: Kok Agora 1988, 223-249.
Report on the Symposium "Dramatische Erlösungslehre im Lichte der Theorie Girards" in Innsbruck (September 25-28, 1991)
Hardly any other European theologian in Europe has used René Girard's theory as consistently in his theological work as the Catholic systematic theologian at the Uni versity in Innsbruck Raymund Schwager, SJ. His work focuses on the doctrine of redemption. The important stages of the development of his work correspond to his publications. The interpretation of biblical texts (Brauchen wir einen Sündenbock? Gewalt und Erlösung in den biblischen Schriften, München 1978; 2nd ed. 1985; american translation: Must There Be Scapegoats? New York 1987), the reconstruction of historical models of the doctrine of redemption (Der wunderbare Tausch. Zur Geschichte und Deutung der Erlösungslehre. München 1986), and the attempt to articulate burning problems of contemporary humanity from this theological point of view (Für Gerechtigkeit und Frieden. Der Glaube als Antwort auf die Anliegen der Gegenwart. Innsbruck 1986) are, so to speak, works preparatory to a systematic project. He has taken up the project in his -- for the time being -- latest book (Jesus im Heilsdrama. Entwurf einer bibli schen Erlösungslehre. Innsbruck: Tyrolia 1990; cf. the review in: The Bulletin of COV&R No. 1 [1991] p. 10). Besides factual questions this book also discusses questions of the theological method. Firstly, therefore, it deals with the problem of historico-critical exegesis and its fruitfulness to systematic theology, and secondly with a "dramatic" concept of theology, that was developed in the tradition of Hans Urs von Balthasar.
In order to subject this attempt up to critical and comprehensive discussion, the Institut für Dogmatische und Ökumenische Theologie der Theologischen Fakultät held a symposium in Innsbruck. The organizers had several goals in mind. Firstly R. Schwager is not the only theologian who uses Girard's theory and therefore not "immune" to criticism from this point of view. Secondly the theory itself is still controversial in the field of theological research.
The symposium consisted of three parts. The begin ning focused on questions in the realm of biblical scho larship. The opening papers were in a way like "thunder bolts". Prof. Peter Fiedler (Freiburg i. Br.) criticized frontally Schwager's concept from the perspective of a historico-critical exegete. R. Schwager tried to refute this criticism in his supplementary paper. The subsequent discussion of exegetical questions returned again and again to the opening argument. The following speakers dealt with the biblical topics: Lorenz Oberlinner (Freiburg i. Br.): "Wer kann sich in Wahrheit auf Gott berufen?" Ein Plädoyer für die Gegner Jesu ["Who can truly refer to God?" A plea in favor of the adversaries of Jesus]; Robert Hamerton-Kelly (Stanford/USA): Die "Menschenmenge" und die Poetik des Sündenbocks im Markusevangelium [The crowd and the poetics of the scapegoat in the gospel of Mark]; James G. Williams (Syracuse/USA): Die Wahr heit des Opfers [The truth of the victim]; Robert North SJ (Rome) Lohfinks Empfehlung für Girard [Lohfink's recom mendation of Girard]; Eckart Otto (Mainz) Gewaltvermei dung und -überwindung in Recht und Religion Israels. Rechtshistorische und theologische Anmerkungen eines Alttestamentlers zu R. Schwagers Entwurf einer bibli schen Erlösungslehre [Avoidance and overcoming of violence in the law and religion of Israel. Legal-historical and theological considerations of R. Schwager's program of a biblically-based doctrine of redemption by a scholar of the Old Testament]; Klaus Koch (Hamburg): Der "Märtyrertod" als Sühne in der aramäischen Fassung des Asarja-Gebetes Dan 3,38-40 [The "martyr's death" as atonement in the Aramaic version of Azariah's Prayer in Dan 3,38-40].
The second part of the symposium focused on que stions of systematic theology. Professors of systematic and fundamental theology discussed the project of a "doctrine of dramatic redemption" in the context of que stions concerning the history of theology and in the context of systematic problems of contemporary theology. Hansjürgen Verweyen (Freiburg i. Br.): Offene Fragen im Sühnebegriff auf dem Hintergrund der Auseinanderset zung Raymund Schwagers mit Hans Urs von Balthasar [Open questions in the concept of atonement against the background of Raymund Schwager's examination of Hans Urs von Balthasar]; Otto Hermann Pesch (Hamburg) Erlösung durch stellvertretende Sühne - oder Erlösung durch das Wort? [Redemption through substitutionary expiation - or redemption through the word?]; John P. Galvin (Washington D.C./USA): Zur dramatischen Erlö sungslehre Raymund Schwagers: Fragen aus der Sicht Karl Rahners [Raymund Schwager's doctrine of dramatic redemption: Questions from the perspective of Karl Rahner]; Edmund Arens (Frankfurt a. M.): Dramatische Erlösungslehre aus der Perspektive einer theologischen Handlungstheorie [The concept of dramatic redemption from the perspective of a theological theory of action]; Hans-Richard Reuter (Heidelberg): Stellvertretung. Erwägungen zu einer dogmatischen Kategorie im Ge spräch mit René Girard und Raymund Schwager [Sub stitution. Considerations concerning a systematic category in discussion with Raymund Schwager and René Girard]; Peter Knauer SJ (Frankfurt am Main): Rivalität und Nächstenliebe [Rivalry and love of neighbor]; André Lascaris OP (Nijmegen): Die Einmaligkeit Jesu [The uniqueness of Jesus]; Bernd Dieckmann (Marburg): Judas als Doppelgänger Jesu? Elemente und Probleme der Judastradition. [Judas a double of Jesus? Elements and problems in the Judas tradition]; Bernard Sesboüe SJ (Paris): Erzählung von der Erlösung. Vorschläge einer narrativen Soteriologie [Narration of the redemption. Proposals for a narrative soteriology]; Mariano Delgado (Berlin): "Bin ich der Hüter meines Bruder?" -- Erlösung in indianischer Perspektive angesichts des Dramas der Conquista. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Grün dungsmordmythos bei den Ketschua vor und nach der Ankunft des Christentums ["Am I my brother's keeper?" -- Redemption in an Indian perspective in the face of the drama of the Conquista. An Examination of the Ketschua myth of the founding murder before and after the arrival of Christianity].
The third part focused on the problems of Girard's theory. Georg Baudler (Aachen): Christliche Gottes erfahrung und das Sakrale. Der Aufweis positiver Gottes erfahrung in der Religions- und Menschheitsgeschichte als (religionspädagogisch und pastoral) notwendige Ergänzung zu einer Neuinterpretation christlichen Glau bens im Lichte der Theorie Girards [Christian experience of God and the sacred. The proof of positive experience of God in the history of religion and humanity as a necessary supplement (from a pastoral perspective and from the perspective of religious education) to the new interpretation of Christian faith in the light of Girard's theory]; Egon Spiegel (Münster): Gründungsmord oder Wiederherstellungsmord? Sozio-theologische Anmerkungen zum Stellenwert des Opfers bei René Girard [Founding murder or restoration murder? Socio- theological considerations about the status of the sacrifice in Girard's theory]; Erwin Waldschütz (Wien): Kritische Õberlegungen zum Verständnis der Mimesis [Critical reflections concerning the understanding of mimesis]. On one of the evenings Roel Kaptein (La Hengelo/The Netherlands) gave a talk about his practical experiences with Girard's theory in the field of therapy: Krankheit und Heilung. Ursprung, Hintergründe und Vorbereitung eines Projektes im City-Hospital in Belfast [Illness and healing. Beginning, background, and preparation of a project in the City-Hospital in Belfast].
Besides the above, several colleagues from the University Innsbruck, and the following professors and guests participated in the discussion: W. Huber (Heidelberg), H. Jensen, J. Jørgensen (Åarhus/Denmark), G. Larcher (Graz), B. Studer (Rome) and St. Budzik (Tarnów/Poland). Unfortunately B. Janowski/Heidelberg ("Er trat ein für die Vielen." Jes 52,13 - 53,12 und die Dramatik der Stellvertretung" ["He bore the sin of many." Jes 52,13 - 53,12 and the dramatics of substitution]) and G. Fuchs/Wiesbaden (Das Opfer hat das letzte Wort. Zur Reformulierung des Evangeliums vom Gottes Gericht [The victim has the last word. The reformulation of the gospel about God's judgement]) had to cancel their participation.
It is not possible to mention and describe all the papers and the resulting discussions fully. Those who want to know more about this symposium can look forward to the publication of the papers of the conference in May 1992. This book will not only include all the different papers but also a systematic evaluation of the conference by R. Schwager:
Józef Niewiadomski - Wolfgang Palaver (Hg.), Dramatische Erlösungslehre. Ein Symposium (Innsbruck, 25.-28. September 1991). (Innsbrucker theologische Studien 38) Innsbruck: Tyrolia 1992: ISBN 3-7022-1841-6.
Józef Niewiadomski
Abstracts of the COV&R-Conference in Kansas City November 23, 1991
Eugene Webb (University of Washington), Introducto ry Remarks
My chapter on Girard in Philosophers of Consciousness: Polanyi, Lonergan, Voegelin, Ricoeur, Girard, Kierkegaard had two goals. One was to offer a concise summary of Girard's main ideas for people not already familiar with his thought. The other was to relate his ideas to certain philosophical issues. I think that if my discussion of Girard has some contribution to make to Girardian studies as such, it must be primarily as a working out of some of the implications of his ideas about mimesis for the under standing of philosophical reflection. The main focus of the book itself is on cognitional theory and its relation to ontology. I found in writing it, however, that some of the issues dividing the other thinkers I was studying could be helpfully elucidated by way of a Girardian analysis.
One of these, for example, was the role of myth in philosophical thinking. Bernard Lonergan began with a very limited conception of myth as a kind of feeble, misguided effort to think in a manner that might be described as "scientific." Eric Voegelin brought to focus another dimension of myth, as an inquiry continuous with philosophy which it could never fully pass beyond becau se philosophy as such, like myth, was essentially an expression of "the love of being through love of divine Being as the source of its order." What Girard offered to the exploration of such issues was a whole new per spective on both myth and the idea of "being." Voegelin appreciated myth in a way Lonergan did not, as did Ricoeur also, but although he was far from naive about the way human intentionality can become twisted into various forms of flight from consciousness, reality in general, and especially the reality of the human experien ce of what Voegelin called "existential tension," he (as well as Polanyi and Ricoeur) seemed to me to have little insight into the kind of polarization of violence that Girard brings to light in myth, nor did either Lonergan or Voegelin seem to have any sense of the way the whole idea of "being" related to that of power and to the fascination with power that Girard discusses under the heading of "meta physical desire."
It also seems to me, however, that the kinds of reflecti on that grow out of relating Girardian thinking to the philosophical concerns of the other thinkers discussed in my book points toward a need to expand the horizon of Girardian reflection itself to encompass the kinds of issues these philosophers deal with. In addition to the Girardian concept of mimetic desire as a basic motivating force in human beings, one must also recognize and understand the implications of a fundamental existential appetite, a desire (or motivation) to "be" that aims not at the illusion of possessing the being of an objective mediator but at the fulfillment of the human capacity to perform the distinctly human operations that go into existence as an attentive, intelligent, reasonable, and responsible person. The light Girardian analysis throws on the reasons we fall short of this goal is invaluable, but its specific value is precisely to help us through insight to free ourselves for its more effective pursuit.
Andrew J. McKenna (Loyola University of Chicago) Response to "René Girard: Consciousness and the Dynamics of Desire" in Philosophers and Cons ciousness by Eugene Webb
In the light of this chapter's excellent presentation of mimetic theory, one is provoked to wonder whether the mimetic hypothesis should be ranged amidst a discussion of philosophers -- Ricoeur, Lonergan, Kierkegaard, Voegelin -- or whether it should not be regarded as an alternative, indeed an antidote, to philosophy's largely introspective tradition, to its preoccupation with mental operations independently of the modelling role of the other. The notion of mediated desire so thoroughly deconstructs, in exactly the sense broadcast by Derrida, the philosophical construct of subject and object as to recommend itself equally as a coherent alternative to prevailing theories, Freudian and Lacanian, of uncons ciousness. Even Foucault's analytic of power, a notion unduly entified by Webb, is illuminated by a theory which discloses the object of desire (be it power itself) as a signifier of violent rivalry.
Mark I. Wallace (Swarthmore College), Review of Webb's analysis of Girard in Philosophers of Cons ciousness
I raised two points in my evaluation. First, Webb criticizes traditional philosophers' attempts to spiritualize desire as the drive for union with the source as an exercise in false consciousness that camouflages the true potency of mimeticism and its destructive effects. Nevertheless, Webb is conflicted on this issue, and it is at this juncture that his analysis registers an important advance beyond Girard's more narrow understanding of mimesis. For though he chastises the philosophers' "romantic" nostalgia for mimetic myth of divine imitation, he adds this coda to his critique: "There can be circumstances -- when the models available are of the right sort, as in the case of the saint's imitatio Christi -- in which the interdividual dimensi on of human life can lead to possibilities beyond the . . . conflictual alone (Webb, 310). Herein lies an extension beyond Girardian analysis into the spiritual ether that Webb earlier in the book warns against: a valorization of healthy mimesis in which selfless imitation of the divine other breaks the cycle of internal agonistic mimesis and forms the basis for nonconflictual love and care for the other.
Secondly, I suggest that while Girard's (and Webb's) hermeneutic implies that the church-sanctioned mainline stories of God's nonviolent agency is the center of the biblical story, that those who endure the pain of sacrificial violence know that the numbing enigma of their suffering remains inscrutable and unanswerable within this model. The burden of emplotment falls to the reader, and she has to make sense of the violent and nonviolent mixed dis course, the pathologically frozen distortions, within the biblical witness; she cannot adequately do so, however, if the "original scenes" of text-mediated violence within the Bible are bracketed off by the Girardian canon within the canon. Though Webb's analysis of mimesis marks a significant break with Girard's more narrow theory of desire, like Girard, he does not adequately sound the depths of the Bible's complicity with the sacrificial violence that is always lurking just outside the door of the house hold of faith.
Reviews
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, La panique (Collection: Les empècheurs de penser en rond). Edité par les Labora toires Delagrange. Paris 1991.
In the empirical research of panic reactions there are two major schools of thought: the French and the American. Among the French researchers the paradox surfaces that the phenomenon of panic is first described as the dissolu tion of the individual consciousness into a "collective soul", but then soon afterwards as just the opposite, that is, as the disintegration of the collective group cohesion into individual reactions. A similar paradox is to be seen in the American school of research which views panic partly in the context of everyday behavior ("competition situation") and partly in what is totally contrary to such behavior. There are other, more theological investigations of panic in the context of the problematic of the market system and stock market speculations. The theories to date contrast the regulated market system and the masses with their panic reactions (properties of the market: egoism, no central authority, protection against contagion; properties of the masses: libido, a strong leader, contagion). Dupuy is able to show how this traditional view contains a whole series of paradoxes. Furthermore, he is able to make clear that all the parado xes which surface in the French and American schools and in regards to the market system can be resolved by means of the Girardian concept of pseudo-narcissism and mimesis. The result: there is no fundamental opposition between the market system and the reactions of the masses or between everyday behavior and panic reac tions.
In other analyses which delve further, Dupuy exami nes, under the heading of "mimesis and rationality", the logic of the market system and the rationality of speculati on. In so doing, he shows that in crisis situations the only reasonable mode of behavior consists in imitating the behavior of others. Objectivity is only seeming, and fixed points of reference are not given beforehand, but rather arise out of an interplay of mutual imitation which is brought about through pure chance: The same mecha nism brings about the crisis and the resolution of the crisis. In a closing reflection Dupuy concludes that mass psychology is no longer to be developed from depth psychology but rather from the tenets of dynamic sys tems.
The analyses of Dupuy are incisive and document the fact that many phenomena in today's society are to be understood, in fact, as due to mimesis, a mechanism which produces its own form of rationality. But the ra tionality of which Dupuy speaks is the rationality for survival and success in a situation of crisis and not the rationality which tries to find a long-term perspective. This latter kind of rationality is very different and must try to break the mechanism of mimesis.
Raymund Schwager
James Williams, The Bible, Violence, and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence. New York: HarperSanFrancisco 1991.
This is an ambitious work. It undertakes to use Girard's "explanatory model", ". . to weave the biblical texts and contexts into a tapestry displaying the full biblical picture that forms the basis and background of the words at tributed to Jesus in the Passion story, 'They hated me without a cause,' and 'He was numbered with trans gressors' . . (and) . . to consider the biblical revelation in relation to contemporary American culture and to ask, What is 'good mimesis' for us -- mimesis that frees us from or drastically diminishes rivalry, conflict, and violen ce?" (p.31). Williams weaves his tapestry by means of a series of studies of selected biblical texts -- the rival brothers in Genesis, the Exodus and Moses, the Cove nant and Sacrifice, Kings and Prophets, Job, and the Gospels. The studies are sandwiched between an in troduction to the theory, and an application of it to a critique of current North American culture. Williams demonstrates that it is fruitful for the interpretation of the texts, and therefore that the texts in turn are warrants for the truth of the theory. This result justifies the use of the theory in the criticism of culture and also justifies the pre-eminent position of the Bible as the standard of that critical truth. Williams gives us a rich and subtle reading of many elements in the text. The book is a major con tribution to the effort to demonstrate the power of Girard's theory to understand the Bible.
One general question raised by the work is whether revelation is the only force operating within Israel or whether there are two generative forces, both a revelatory (demythologizing) and a reactionary (re-mythologizing) one. A corollary question is whether there is a linear progression in the effect of revelation through the Bible. Williams sees the biblical witness as a logical if not chronological progress of revelation, as God is seen more and more to side with the victims (eg. "The ancient Israelite journey of increasing disclosure of the effect of desire, mimesis, and victimization . ." p.98). Another way of stating the question is whether the mythological ele ments are an entirely passive residue that is progressively removed or whether the mythologizing force is alive and active in the biblical traditions. An answer to this question will determine how we view Israel's election and perfor mance as the bearer of revelation.
Turning to the text, we are guided by a helpful summa ry on pp.187-188, which begins with the claim that since we cannot extricate ourselves from the web of mimesis there must be a revelation from without to free us. This revelation occurs gradually as the traditions first attest the old order of the sacred with its sacrificial mechanism and its violent god, then demonstrate the struggle to break free of it under the impulse of revelation. Although Williams says that he has "not attempted an argument for the truth of divine revelation" (187), this work amounts to a demon stration of that truth.
In the first chapter, after a good introduction of the theory, which is especially interesting in the account of the link between language and the "emerging exception," Williams declares that he will proceed pragmatically to justify its use by showing how it illuminates the texts. This is sound method. Then he introduces the matter of the differences amongst the traditions. He compares the J story of Cain and Abel with the P account of the birth of Seth that ignores Cain. The priestly editors start the human race again with the non-violent birth of Seth, and place the non-violent account of the creation at the very beginning of the Torah. These are mythological effacings of violent origins purchased at the price of the sacrificial animal substitutes of the cultus, and the failure to integrate the human condition as set out in the Cain and Abel story. The P tradition is, therefore, a failed response to revelati on.
However, the fact that the Cain and Abel story was preserved by the P editors shows that there is at most an imperfect re-mythification process at work. This situation is typical of the biblical interaction of traditions, and is better described as a dialectic, in this case between J and P, rather than a linear progress of revelation.
The purpose of the Cain and Abel story is to disclose the violent origins of sacred order. The marking of Cain signifies the establishment of a system of sacrificial differentiation that discourages mimetic conflict. It is also the sign of the vengeance of the sacral God. Anyone who kills Cain will suffer the sevenfold vengeance of God. Later, the song of Lamech shows that vengeance continues as the original sanction of order, but now human vengeance, more deadly than God's. "If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold" (Gen 4:23b-24). This is itself a demythologization, an early instance of how the biblical revelation breaks free of the sacred, because it locates vengeance where it actually belongs, in the human rather than the divine realm.
Then, however, we encounter the claim that the fratricide is not "the act that founds the people of Israel or any of its great institutions," but rather that the call of Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12;1-3), founds "the people who emerge out of the peoples as the divinely chosen exception" (p.38). This makes the biblical account perilously like a myth of innocence. Other societies are founded on violence, as the mark of Cain shows, but ours is not! Others may be blamed for violence we may not! Thus we face the delicate question of the truth of a claim that is formally like a myth. Why is this claim true while all other such claims are false? Is there indeed one exception to the plight of all humanity?
It seems to me essential to read the history of the people that claims to be the emerging divinely chosen exception with a great deal of suspicion. A good way to do this is to maintain the link with Cain that the J writer forges, to see this exception as struggling to emerge by a dialectic that takes place not only between it and other peoples, but also within itself. There is a Cain within Israel too. This entails that one read the claims to be generated not by nature (violence) but by grace (call and promise) as expressions of faith and hope, not of ontology. Israel is not ontologically different from the rest of humanity, but distinguished only by its struggle to respond to the revelation that calls from beyond the sacred precincts that enclose us all. In the course of this struggle it sometimes generates its own sacral myths, as the P tradition shows.
Williams describes this struggle well as he weaves his tapestry of traditions. In the chapter on the enemy brothers he shows the sacral propensities as well as the responses to grace. The Esau-Jacob story alludes to the way the clever Israelites symbolized by Jacob, defraud the dumb Edomites symbolized by Esau (pp.40 & 42). At the end of the story, even after Jacob has gone through the ordeal of self-discovery at the Jabbok -- Williams's treatment of which is one of the best parts of the book -- he still deceives Esau by not going to the agreed meeting place in Seir but off to another venue in Canaan. Nevertheless, the twin brothers had achieved a non-violent differentiation, because Jacob had wrestled with himself and God, and faced the reality of rivalry in himself. This differentiation is part of the story of the emergence of Israel from its "ancestral stock and relationships," and Jacob's limp signifies not his status as an outcast but the fact that "he had been victorious without scapegoating or being scapegoated" (p.54). He won because he wrestled with God and himself and did not blame someone else for his predicament. Other signs of revelation are the offer of Judah to be a substitute for Benjamin in the Joseph story and the reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers, which recalls the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. Reconciliation, rather than scapegoating, is the sign of revelation. Furthermore, as Williams deftly points out, the winners in these rivalries do not escape ordeals of their own, so that the contrast between the two figures is not great.
Williams summarizes as follows: "This conflictual mimesis is at the root of culture; it dominates human relations. But from the standpoint of the Torah it has to be placed in the context of the story of Abraham and his descendants. The promises of God to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3,7) become the frame for working out a new human destiny that would witness to the revelation of the God of Israel who is the God of victims. Cain's rivalry with Abel is a paradigm of the human condition, but the outcome of the stories of Jacob and Joseph show the way of a good mimesis that is enacted through the history of the promises" (p.63).
These are signs that the election of Israel is true and not merely a myth of ethnic self-justification, that, in terms that are strange to current biblical studies, there really is a God who called Israel from beyond the confines of the sacred, and to whom Israel responded more or less faithfully from time to time. This theological affirmation is the only antidote to the myth of chosenness. The God who calls Israel out and promises to make him a blessing to the world must be the true divine ground of all the nations. The whole truth of Israel's self-presentation rests on the truth of God, and that is only accessible to faith.
The criterion of siding with the victims, by which Girard identifies revelation, is tricky because one can always use the status of victim to claim the moral high ground. The willingness to include oneself amongst the sinners, precisely not to set oneself apart from the rest of the human race, is therefore an essential supplement to that criterion, and that is why the link to the Cain and Abel story must be strong. Williams' repeated assertions that Israel's destiny is generated by faith and promise and not by the sacred are so strong that they risk giving the impression that Israel's exceptional status is ontological rather than by grace.
The result of this misunderstanding is to turn revelation into an ideology by grounding it ontologically rather than by faith. The danger of ideologizing was seen by Thomas Mann. Williams criticizes him for not paying sufficient attention to victims and for making "the supreme feature of the God of Israel his invisibilty and mobility, not his will to eliminate the difference of slavery and establish a community of peace and righteousness" (p.102). Here is the nub of my discontent with the tenor and thrust of Williams' work. Despite all the qualifications, all the acknowledgement of Israel's realistic sense of its own shortcomings, he treats the divine project as a social program for victims whose flag bearer is righteous Israel. An early criticism of Girard by Hayden White (Ethnological "Lie" and Mythical "Truth," Diacritics [Fall 1982] 2-13) said that he wanted to prove the truth of Christianity scientifically. There is some truth in this accusation because there are times when Girard, and Williams, seem to imply that a reading of the Bible must convince the unbiased reader of its truth. This might be so if all its truth were the disclosure of the mechanism, but that is only part of it. The full truth includes the offer of faith in the unseen God, and that faith delivers us from making Christianity an ideology, turning it into a witch hunt for witch hunters.
Subsequent chapters weave the tapestry of the conflict between revelation and the sacred through various high points of the text. The Exodus story tells how the law and covenant are a step forward because they are a substitute for sacrifice, but are nevertheless still instruments of sacral exclusion "tied to a theology of divine anger" (187). The kings and prophets are sacred victims, chosen by the same lottery by which the victims are traditionally chosen, and the prophets are able to use this position of sacral marginality to uncover the violence of the center. Job is the failed scapegoat who reveals the scapegoating tendencies of his communities and, by his refusal to accept the role, causes the mechanism to fail and thus to reveal itself.
These chapters are well done, full of the kind of insight that shows the power of the theory and compels the reader's attention. The three concluding chapters, on the gospels and the contemporary American scene are less satisfying. I found the treatment of the gospels on the whole cursory, although not without gems of insight from an acute eye. The chapter on the American scene, however, is so sweeping in its generalizations about our social problems and so bold in its range, from international security, to addiction, to abortion, that it might cast doubt on what has gone before in the eyes of the general reader. These are questions for systematic and philosophical analysis.
Footnotes in chapter one have been transposed as follows: 27-30, 28-31, 29-32. This is a minor solecism in an otherwise well-produced book.
Williams has given us a profound meditation on the Bible, which shows the subtle interaction of grace and the sacred in its pages, a richly textured tapestry of sin and salvation which describes the struggle of the divine mercy to manifest itself in the midst of human mendacity, in the real world beyond the text, where we all live and search for truth . . .
Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly
Andrew J. McKenna, Violence and Difference: Girard, Derrida, and Deconstruction. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992. Pp. 233*; hardbound, no price available.
It is something of a scandal that the work of René Girard is largely ignored by most of the critics influenced by JacquesDerrida and is passed over in silence by Derrida himself. Andrew McKenna's study is the first to bring the thought of these two enormously important thinkers into positive contact. Although they are something like "enemy brothers" to each other, McKenna shows how Derrida's deconstruction of texts and language leads logically, indeed ineluctably, to Girard's victimary hypothesis, while Girard's model of mimetic desire, victimization, and sacrifice is explicated and amplified by Derrida's analysis of texts and deconstruction of philosophy in terms of writing as trace, erasure, supplement -- indeed, as pharmakon or poison/remedy.
McKenna's writing is lucid and his analysis superb. Beginning with the famous scene in Molière's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme where the bourgeois merchant, M. Jourdain, calls on the Philosopher to adjudicate the fierce quarrel among the Fencing Master, the Music Master, and the Dance Master over the value of their respective professions, McKenna moves on in the introduction, "Philosophy in Spite of Itself," to articulate the general thesis of the book: "only a fundamental anthropology, rooted in the violent origin of the sacred, can think through the paradoxes evoked everywhere by Derrida when he challenges our conceptions of origins" (18). Just as the Philosopher in Molière's play soon abuses his mediating role by asserting his superiority over the other three and is then physically attacked by them, ending up as the scapegoat, so the current fate of philosophy. It has tried to assert its superiority in ways that camouflage violence and sacrifice and now it has been exposed. McKenna shows that Derrida is right about philosophy's bankruptcy in the form of "logocentrism" and modern rationalism.
The argument proceeds through chapters on philosophy and sacrifice in Plato and Descartes, violence and the origin of language, postmodernism as the victim age (whose paradigm is the Holocaust), state secrets (whose paradigm is the Greenpeace affair in 1985), and a concluding chapter on representation and decidability. The author has also attached an appendix on biblical theory and the victimary hypothesis.
Space permits only a sampling of significant facets of McKenna's argument. In his discussion of institutions and the trace he contends that the letter, the fold (le pli), is analogous to a community's dissimulation of its own violence. "For Girard this is the very function of sacrifice: erasing the human origin of violence in the expulsion of the victim, in the sacralization of the victim" (90). "The victim is the origin of an indecision," an indecision born of desire. It is desire that "is the origin of the sacred, which is only the erasure of the mimetic (non)origin of desire" (97).
As for dissemination -- or différance -- it "is the name for the indirection of truth," and this means truth's "infinite substitutionability, which begins with the victim" (164). Derridean analysis illuminates nearness and distance, before and after, presence and absence in Girard's exposition of the sacred, whereas a Girardian analysis protects against the delusion of "complacency about our temporal or spatial finitude or that it destines us to infinite meaninglessness" (103).
As McKenna says in his conclusion, "Deconstruction . . . is historicized rather than invalidated once its attention to the uncanny is shown to reflect 'the crisis of all cultural signs' [Girard]" (176). But for me a question remains, a question that may be relevant both to the master-thinkers and to the scholar-doubles that represent Derridean deconstruction and Girardian poststructuralism. From the Girardian side of this rivalry, I would ask whether the relation McKenna shows so well between the violence of the trace, erasure, or supplement and the violence done to the victim who is represented in (and as) the sacred is simultaneously a barrier. Can those focusing on gramms and letters and texts and those focusing on real victims enter into creative conversation with one another? I wonder. Is there an analogue between Derrida's mode of thought and his silence on Girard's mimetic model of violence and the sacred? Silence may also be a dismissal, an expulsion.
*The reviewer read the book in page proofs. The page numbers cited are from the proofs.
James G. Williams
COV&R CONFERENCE AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Ethnocentrism in the Study of Violence
May 7-9, 1992
Conference Program
After a reception on Thursday evening, May 7, there will be a full program of papers on Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9. The conference will conclude with a dinner Saturday evening at the Sundance Mine Company (across the street from the Stanford Terrace Inn).
Papers will be given by
Mark Anspach, "Ethnocentrism and the Mimetic Double Bind"
René Girard, "Ethnocentrism and Western Culture"
Roel Kaptein, "Northern Ireland and Ethnocentrism"
Andrew McKenna, "The Song of Roland, Ethnocen trism, and Violence: Euracism and Mine"
Tobin Siebers, "The Ethics of Anti-Ethnocentrism"
Norman Stolzoff, "Generative Violence and Participant Observation"
There will also be a discussion of Robert Hamerton-Kelly's book, Sacred Violence: Paul's Herme neutic of the Cross. Critiques will be offered by Paul Duff, "Sacred Violence and Social Order in Paul's Writings," and Neil Elliott, "The Lethality of the Law in Paul: Issues of Interpretation." Kelly will send an article summarizing his argument to all registered participants and respond to the presentations by Duff and Elliott.
Seminar on Spirituality
In addition to the regular conference, there will also be a seminar on spirituality Wednesday, May 6, 5:30-10 p.m. It will be led by Roel Kaptein and Raymund Schwager. The anticipated "mix" of participants is that of interested COV&R members, local laypeople, and perhaps some university faculty.
Meeting Places
Information on meeting places for the regular conference and the spirituality seminar will be sent with the papers to those who register for the conference.
Registration Fee
As indicated in the first issue of the Bulletin, we will have to require a registration fee in order to cover a large part of the expenses of the conference. The Executive Secre tary will give a financial report at the meeting. We now have dues payments from 55 members in North America and Europe (as of January 6), plus some assistance from the Program of Interdisciplinary Research and René Girard's Hammond Chair funds. However, the support from the Program has been drastically reduced. Without registration income, the conference would not be possible.
The registration form should be sent by March 31 to Kaeti Bailie (address on form). The registration fee is $50.00. This includes the cost of duplicating and mailing papers, the reception, a common lunch on Saturday, and other expenses. The cost of the concluding dinner is not included in the registration. The charge for the dinner is $25.00.
Lodging
A block of rooms has been set aside for COV&R partici pants at Stanford Terrace Inn, which is a walk of about 15 minutes from the Stanford campus. The motel will provide a shuttle service to the campus (but not back to the motel). It is also possible to use the University Marguerite bus system from the motel to the campus and back. Please reserve a room right away by calling the motel directly, 415/857-0333. Its address is 531 Stanford Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306. The room rate is $84.70, including tax. Since all the rooms are set up as doubles, you can halve the rate by arranging to share a room.
Transportation (SFO Airport to Palo Alto)
To get from SFO Airport to Palo Alto we recommend the Airport Connection shuttle service. Call after your arrival at the airport (white courtesy telephone) 7-0901.
Further Information
For further information about the conference contact James G. Williams at Syracuse University (tel. 315/443-3861, fax 315/443-5390) or Margaret Tompkins at Stanford University (tel. 415/723-1356, fax 415/723-0482).
COV&R: ETHNOCENTRISM IN THE STUDY OF VIOLENCE MAY 7-9 AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Name
Address
Telephone No. .................................................... Fax
I will attend the spirituality seminar (May 6)
Send your check for registration ($50), or registration and dinner ($75), to Kaeti Bailie, Temenos, Box 925, Sonoma, CA 95476. Tel. 707/996-4704. Please make out the check to COV&R.
New Books
Dieckmann, Bernhard: Judas als Sündenbock: eine verhängnisvolle Geschichte von Angst und Vergeltung. München 1991.
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G.: Sacred Violence. Paul's Hermeneutic of the Cross. Minneapolis: Fortress Press 1992.
McKenna, Andrew J.: Violence and Difference: Girard, Derrida, and Deconstruction. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1992 (forthcoming).
Oughourlian, Jean-Michel: The Puppet of Desire. The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis. Translated, with an Introduction, by Eugene Webb. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1991.
Serres, Michel: Rome. The Book of Foundations. Translated by Felicia McCarren. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1991.
Future Meetings
The Colloquium will meet in conjunction with AAR/SBL in San Francisco, either on Friday, November 20 or Saturday, November 21, 1992. This will be a day-long meeting. The program has not been worked out but René Girard has agreed to be with us for the day. The details will be announced at Stanford in May and will be provided in the Fall issue of The Bulletin of COV&R, as well as in the AAR/SBL Program Book.