COV&R-Bulletin No. 10 (March 1995)
A Note from the Editor
In this issue of the Bulletin, you will find two reports from conferences in which COV&R members participated. We invite you to contact the authors mentioned in the reports for a copy of their papers for further discussion. The executive secretary of COV&R or the editorial office of the Bulletin will provide you with addresses.
Let me raise also some administrative matters:
(1) We ask you to send us your contributions to the Bulletin on a floppy disk or by e-mail. It greatly simplifies the publication of the Bulletin.
(2) If you would like to write a book review for the Bulletin please contact the editorial office or James G. Williams, the executive secretary. The length of a review should be between 600 and 1000 words. Longer reviews (at most 2000 words) will only be published in special circumstances.
(3) The length of an abstract should be between 100 and 300 words.
(4) Please find out if you have paid your annual dues. You will find the date of your last payment at the top of your mailing label. The regular membership fee is $40.00. Matriculated students may enroll for $20. It is also possible to subscribe to the Bulletin without membership for $15. The Bulletin appears biannually. The terms of payment you will find on the front-page.
Wolfgang Palaver
Greetings from the President
I would like to thank the COV&R Advisory Board and the members in attendance at our last meeting for the unexpected honor I received from them, in my election as president of COV&R. I take their confidence seriously and will do my best to live up to it. I know many of you personally. However, I think it is probably fair to say that my name is not exactly what you might call a household word among the COV&R membership at large (our group has expanded considerably in the last few years). Therefore, by way of personal introduction, I would like to offer here some thoughts on what I consider to be at this moment two important areas for further development in our group. One concerns the book series on which Jim Williams is so actively working. The success of such a series can go a long way in establishing and promoting a clear intellectual identity for COV&R and its rich internal diversity. We should all help and encourage Jim in this most worthy task.
The other describes my own intellectual preferences more directly. I am particularly interested in the relationship between Christianity, as a non-sacrificial revelation which, nevertheless, points clearly to the historical centrality of sacrifice, and other non-Christian experiences of the sacred. My presentation at Loyola offered some preliminary reflections in that direction. But my feeling is that what we know so far in this regard is probably only the tip of an enormous iceberg. In general, my inclination is toward the development and deepening of our understanding of the sacrificial model itself over its mechanical application. Or to put it somewhat differently, we are still far from knowing everything about the scapegoat mechanism, the depth and spread of its roots, and its practically infinite and largely hidden side-effects. And if this is so, I believe the responsible and prudent thing for us to do as members of COV&R is to keep investigating it in depth through open, collegial, and critical discussion.
Finally I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the outstanding work of my predecessor, Father Schwager, without whom our European dimension would be hardly conveivable; and I would also like to thank Judy Arias, with whom I have worked perhaps more closely than with any other member of COV&R. I know that without her untiring dedication and sheer hard work, frequently under difficult circumstances, Contagion would not exist today.
Thanks again for your confidence, and for your patience.
Cesáreo Bandera
A Note from the Executive Secretary
I would like to inform members and supporters of COV&R that I have withdrawn the Girardian book series from the Syracuse University Press. During the plenary business meeting at Loyola University last June I intimated that I had had problems with the chief administrators of the press. In August I formally broke the relationship and began looking for a commercial publisher. Crossroad Publishing will do the series on a book-by-book basis. Crossroad published Gil Bailie's book, Violence Unveiled.
I would like also to invite and encourage proposals for papers and sections at the next COV&R meeting in conjunction with AAR/SBL in New Orleans next November (see Future Meetings). If we are to have a full slate of papers and sessions for a day or more, I will have to hear from some of you soon. All copy for the AAR/SBL program book has to be submitted by late in May.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Stanford in June.
James G. Williams
Bibliography of Literature on the Mimetic Theory
1) Books concerning the entire work of René Girard
Schenk, Richard, ed. Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
2) Articles concerning the entire work of René Girard
Emrich, Hinderk. "Zur philosophischen Psychologie des Opfers." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 67-104. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Emrich, Hinderk M. "Physiognomy of the Psychological: Toward a Theory of 'Mimesis'." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 126-143.
Galvin, John P. "Jesus as Scapegoat." Theological Trends (January 1996): 61-68.
Garcia Martinez, Francisco. "La salvación como revelación del mecanismo victimal de la cultura de la violencia: En torno a la soteriología de R. Girard." Estudios Trinitarios 28/1 (1994): 63-86.
Greisch, Jean. "Homo Mimeticus: Kritische Überlegungen zu den anthropologischen Voraussetzungen von René Girards Opferbegriff." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 27-63. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G. "Religion and the Thought of René Girard: An Introduction." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 3-24. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Schweiker, William. "Religion and the Philosophers of Mimesis." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 25-42. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Spaemann, Robert. "Einleitende Bemerkungen zum Opferbegriff." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 11-23. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Stivers, Richard. "The Festival in Light of the Theory of the Three Milieus: A Critique of Girard's Theory of Ritual Scapegoating." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61/3 (1993): 505-538.
Thomas, Konrad. "Krise und Gewalt: Zur Kulturtheorie René Girards." In Friedensentwürfe: Positionen von Querdenkern des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Kinkelbur, Dieter and Zubke, Friedhelm, 84-97. Agenda Frieden 18. Münster: Agenda Verlag, 1995.
Smith, Theophus H and Wallace, Mark I. "Editor's Introduction." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., XVII-XXVI. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
3) Reviews about single works of René Girard
Gallagher, Eugene V. "Review of 'Violent Origins: Burkert,Walter, Girard,René, Smith,Jonathan Z. on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation', ed. R.G. Hamerton-Kelly." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 56/4 (1988): 788-790.
4) Books with references to René Girard
Dumouchel, Paul. Émotions: essai sur le corps et le social. Collection: Les empêcheurs de penser en rond. Paris: Synthélabo, 1995.
Oughourlian, Jean-Michel. La Personne du toxicomane: Psychosociologie des toxicomanies actuelles dans la jeunesse occidentale. Toulouse: Privat, 1986.
5) Articles with references to René Girard
Bürkle, Horst. "Die religionsphänomenologische Sicht des Opfers und ihre theologische Relevanz." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 153-171. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Cladis, Mark S. "The French Connection: Crea, Mauss, and the Academic Study of Religion in the U.S.A.." Religion 25/2 (1995): 179-184.
Cochetti, Stefano. "The Dogon Sacrifice as a Literal Metaphor." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 144-150.
Dumouchel, Paul. "Rationality and the Self-Organization of Preferences." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 177-191.
Gebauer, Gunter and Wulf, Christoph. "Social Mimesis." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 13-24.
Giegerich, Wolfgang. "Tötungen: Über Gewalt aus der Seele." In Gewalt - warum? Der Mensch: Zerstörer und Gestalter, ed. Pflüger, Peter M., 184-233. Olten: Walter, 1992.
Hahn, A and Willems, H. "Schuld und Bekenntnis." Experimenta No. 1 (1995): 86-105.
Hartmann, Fritz. "Opfer in der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaft." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 105-125. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Horst, Robert. "Review of 'The Sacred Game: The Role of the Sacred in the Genesis of Modern Literary Fiction', by Cesáreo Bandera." Cervantes 15 (1995): 107-113.
Koslowski, Peter. "Die Geschichte der Welt als Selbstopfer Gottes: Theorie des Opfers bei Franz von Baader." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 307-328. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
McKenna, Andrew J. "Review of 'The Sacred Game', by Cesáreo Bandera." Philosophy and Literature 19/1 (April 1995): 189-191.
Larcher, Gerhard. "Dramatisches Konzept für die Begegnung von Religionen, Teil 3: Hermeneutisch-theologische Elemente für ein dramatisches Konzept interreligiöser Begegnung." In Christus allein? Der Streit um die pluralistische Religionstheologie, ed. Schwager, Raymund, 107-117. Quaestiones disputatae 160. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1996.
Neumann, Gerhard. "'Yo lo vi'. Wahrnehmung der Gewalt: Canettis 'Masse und Macht'." In Einladung zu Verwandlung: Essays zu Elias Canettis 'Masse und Macht', ed. Krüger, Michael, 68-104. München: Hanser, 1995.
Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang. "Einleitung." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 7-13. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Niewiadomski, Józef. "Das Drama Jesu: Raymund Schwagers Kurzformel des Glaubens." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 31-47. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Regensburger, Dietmar. "Bibliographie Raymund Schwagers." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 233-256. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Schenk, Richard. "Einleitung in die Thematik 'Zur Theorie des Opfers'." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 1-7. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Schenk, Richard. "Opfer und Opferkritik aus der Sicht römisch-katholischer Theologie." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 193-250. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Schwager, Raymund. "Auferstehung im Kontext von Erlösung und Schöpfung." In Hoffnung, die Gründe nennt: Zu Hansjürgen Verweyens Projekt einer erstphilosophischen Glaubensverantwortung, ed. Larcher, Gerhard, Müller, Klaus, and Pröpper, Thomas, 215-225. Regensburg: Pustet, 1996.
Schwager, Raymund. "Rezension zu 'Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch', hg. von Richard Schenk." Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 118/1 (1996): 71-74.
Siebenrock, Roman. "Theologie aus unmittelbarer Gotteserfahrung - oder von der gefährlichen Faszination der Sünde für die Theologie." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 69-91. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Tschuggnall, Peter. "Poetische Inspiration: Komparatistische Improvisation über eine ästhetische Spiegelung." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 199-214. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Wagner, Falk. "Die christliche Revolutionierung des Gottesgedankens als Ende und Aufhebung menschlicher Opfer." In Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch, ed. Schenk, Richard, 251-285. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
6) Books applying the mimetic theory
Büchele, Herwig. Eine Welt oder keine: Sozialethische Grundfragen angesichts einer ausbleibenden Weltordnungspolitik. Innsbruck, Mainz: Tyrolia / Grünewald, 1996.
Grande, Per Bjørnar. Etterligningens dilemma [The Mimetic dilemma]. With a translation of Girard's essay 'Strategies of Madness: Nietzsche, Wagner and Dostoevsky'. HSF Rapport 7/95. Oslo: Falch, 1995.
Happel, Hans-Michael. Ursachen und Bedingungen von Konflikten zwischen Kollektiven. Reihe Sozialwissenschaften 1. Göttingen: Unitext-Verlag, 1994.
Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, ed. Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
7) Articles applying the mimetic theory
Anspach, Mark R. "The Making of a Meta-God: Sacrifice and Self-Transcendence in Vedic Mythology." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 117-125.
Bailie, Gil. "Sacrificial Violence in Homer's 'Iliad'." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 45-70. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Bater, Robert B. "Apocalyptic Religion in Christian Fundamentalism." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 287-304. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Budzik, Stanislaw. "Perversa imitatio Dei: Zum Begriff der Erbsünde bei Augustinus und Schwager." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 93-109. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre. "Mimesis and Social Autopoiesis: A Girardian Reading of Hayek." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 192-214.
Girard, René. "Mimetische Theorie und Theologie." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 15-29. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Girard, René. "Mythology, Violence, Christianity." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 103-116.
Grote, J. "The Imitation of Christ as Double-Bind: Toward a Girardian Spirituality." Cistercian studies 29/4 (1994): 485 ff..
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G. "Die Paulinische Theologie als politische Theologie: Ethnizität, Ideologie und der Messias." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 141-160. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G. "Popular Sovereignty and the Sacred: A Mimetic Reading of Rousseau's Doctrine of the General Will." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 215-244.
Hough, Robert W. "'You Will Reap Just What You Sow': The Vietnam War Poetry of Donald G. Kemp." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 161-181. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl. "Gender, Violence, and Transformation in Alice Walker's 'The Color Purple'." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 266-286. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Kufulu, Joseph M. "Wer ist schuld am Tode Jesu? Antisemitismusangst im 'Katechismus der Katholischen Kirche'." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 111-118. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Larcher, Gerhard. "Gewalt - Opfer - Stellvertretung: Ästhetisch-theologische Spiegelungen im zeitgenössischen Film." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 179-198. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Lasine, Stuart. "Levite Violence, Fratricide, and Sacrifice in the Bible and Later Revolutionary Rhetoric." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 204-229. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Mabee, Charles. "Before the Law: Un/rivaling the Old Testament." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 100-117. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
McKenna, Andrew J. "Desire, Difference, and Deconstruction in 'Madame Bovary'." In Approaches to Teaching Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', ed. Porter, Laurence M. and Gray, Eugene F., 106-113. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1995.
McKenna, Andrew J. "Laughter and Difference in 'Tartuffe'." In Approaches to Teaching Moliere's 'Tartuffe' and Other Plays, ed. Gaines, James F. and Koppisch, Michael S., 49-58. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1995.
McMahon, Edward. "Violence - Religion - Law: A Girardian Analysis." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 182-203. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Niewiadomski, Józef. "Dramatisches Konzept für die Begegnung von Religionen, Teil 1: Begegnung von Religionen im weltzivilisatorischen Kontext." In Christus allein? Der Streit um die pluralistische Religionstheologie, ed. Schwager, Raymund, 83-94. Quaestiones disputatae 160. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1996.
Nirenberg, David. "Les juifs, la violence et le sacré." Annales HSS no. 1 (1995): 109-131.
Orzech, Charles D. "'Provoked Suicide' and the Victim's Behavior: The Case of the Vietnamese Self-Immolators." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 137-160. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Palaver, Wolfgang. "Die mythische Politik der Gewalt und die biblische Botschaft der Gewaltlosigkeit: Eine politisch-theologische Auseinandersetzung mit der Problematik der Entscheidung." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 161-177. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Palaver, Wolfgang. "Die politische Theologie des Großinquisitors: Bemerkungen zu Heinrich Meiers Buch 'Die Lehre Carl Schmitts'." Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 118/1 (1996): 36-49.
Palaver, Wolfgang. "Foundational Violence and Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 166-176.
Palaver, Wolfgang. "Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism." Telos No. 102 (Winter 1995): 43-71.
Sandler, Willibald. "Befreiung der Begierde: Theologie zwischen René Girard und Karl Rahner." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 49-67. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Schwager, Raymund. "Dramatisches Konzept für die Begegnung von Religionen, Teil 2: Offenbarung als dramatische Konfrontation." In Christus allein? Der Streit um die pluralistische Religionstheologie, ed. Schwager, Raymund, 95-106. Quaestiones disputatae 160. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1996.
Schwager, Raymund. "El pecado original: tradición y enfoques nuevos." Selecciones de teología 35/137 (1996): 43-55.
Schwager, Raymund. "Leiden, Opfer und dichterische Inspiration." Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 118/1 (1996): 50-58.
Schwager, Raymund. "Memento: Die Asche der Vergangenheit." In Metamorphosen des Eingedenkens: Gedenkschrift der Katholisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz 1945-1995, ed. Liebmann, Maximilian, Renhart, Erich, and Woschitz, Karl M., 81-91. Graz: Styria, 1995.
Schwager, Raymund. "Messianische Logik: Eine neue Dimension für das jüdisch-christliche Gespräch." Stimmen der Zeit 213 (1995): 545-554.
Schwager, Raymund. "Quién o qué es el diablo." Selecciones de teología 33/130 (April-Juni 1994): 136-140.
Shea, Chris. "Victims on Violence: 'Different Voices' and Girard." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 252-265. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Smith, Theophus H. "King and the Black Religious Quest to Cure Racism." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 230-251. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Swanson, Tod D. "An Ungodly Resemblance: Colonial Violence and Inca Analogies to Christianity." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 121-136. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Thomas, Konrad. "Mimetisches Handeln: Eine vergessene Kategorie und ihre Bedeutung für die soziologische Theoriebildung." Sociologia Internationalis 32/2 (1994): 191-205.
Webb, Eugene. "Mimesis, Evolution, and Differentiation of Consciousness." Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 4/2 (1995): 151-165.
Williams, James G. "Das Matthäusevangelium: Girards Hermeneutik in der praktischen Anwendung." In Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, 119-140. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Williams, James G. "Sacrifice and the Beginning of Kingship." Semeia no. 67 (1994): 73-92.
Williams, James G. "'Steadfast Love and Not Sacrifice': A Nonsacrificial Reading of the Hebrew Scriptures." In Curing Violence, ed. Smith, Theophus H. and Wallace, Mark I., 71-99. Forum Fascicles 3. Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994.
Special Issue of Paragrana
Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie, a journal edited by "Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Historische Anthropologie der Freien Universität Berlin", deals in its latest issue (Vol. 4/2 [1995]) with the theme "Mimesis - Poiesis - Autopoiesis." Several articles of this issue are directly related to the mimetic theory:
Anspach, Mark R. "The Making of a Meta-God: Sacrifice and Self-Transcendence in Vedic Mythology." (pp. 117-125)
Cochetti, Stefano. "The Dogon Sacrifice as a Literal Metaphor." (pp. 144-150)
Dumouchel, Paul. "Rationality and the Self-Organization of Preferences." (pp. 177-191)
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre. "Mimesis and Social Autopoiesis: A Girardian Reading of Hayek." (pp. 192-214)
Emrich, Hinderk M. "Physiognomy of the Psychological: Toward a Theory of 'Mimesis'." (pp. 126-143)
Gebauer, Gunter and Wulf, Christoph. "Social Mimesis." (pp. 13-24)
Girard, René. "Mythology, Violence, Christianity." (pp. 103-116)
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G. "Popular Sovereignty and the Sacred: A Mimetic Reading of Rousseau's Doctrine of the General Will." (pp. 215-244)
Palaver, Wolfgang. "Foundational Violence and Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy." (pp. 166-176)
Webb, Eugene. "Mimesis, Evolution, and Differentiation of Consciousness." (pp. 151-165)
This issue of Paragrana (ISSN 0938-0116) can be purchased for DM 27,-. European customers should contact VCH, Postfach 101161, D-69496 Weinheim; Telefon: (06201) 606146; Telefax: (06201) 606117). American customers: VCH Publishers, Inc., 303 N. W. 12th Ave., Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-1788; telephone (305) 428-5566 or 1-(800)-367-8249; telefax: (305) 428-8201.
Conference Reports
Love of Violence Conference in Seattle October 13-15, 1995
The Ernest Becker Foundation, with the co-sponsorship of the Comparative Religion Program of the University of Washington, presented nine speakers over a 2 1/2 day weekend on the University campus. Over 200 people attended, including Becker Foundation supporters, mental health therapists, practitioners of peace and anti-violence activism, and many from the religious community.
The primary goal of the symposium was to bring together scholars interested in testing the theories of Ernest Becker with those contributing to the advancement of the work of René Girard, and in both approaches to relate them to the human propensity to violence. An additional goal was to infuse into an educated lay Seattle audience enough Becker and Girard to give them a taste of the exciting new understandings being developed therein and a hunger to deepen their insights and activism.
The concepts around the provocative idea of interactions between love and violence proved to be catalytic for probing into assumptions, and for opening up discussions between disciplines. A Martial Arts instructor who is a practicing psychologist and specialist in intervention in crises of violence, opened the gathering with a sword drama in costumed demonstration. An ecologist, the author of The Fates of Nations and The Environment of Crowded Men, dramatically challenged many conventional ways of thinking.
A central tenet of Becker's work is that much of the love of domination comes from our everyday unconscious motivation to devalue, by violence if necessary, those of a different belief system. Remarkable proof of this unconscious motivation was presented by a social psychologist, including new experiments in which the violence inflicted by death-cued subjects was not implicit or theoretical as in earlier work, but was literal, physical, and painful.
The Girardian understanding was fleshed out by five of the speakers, Gil Bailie on "Esprit de Corps: The Love that Violence Engenders;" Cheryl Kirk-Duggan on "The Use of Language to Ignite, Inflame, Control, and Quell Violence;" Susan Nowak on "Silent and Hidden No Longer: A Feminist Perspective on the Treatment of Women and Violence in the Theories of Ernest Becker and Rene Girard;" Eugene Webb on "Desire, Religion, and the Evolution of Consciousness;" and James G. Williams on "Conflict, Violence, and Peacemaking in Dostoevsky." Two talks were given with general, rather than specific, pertinence to Becker and Girard. One considered the present status of a keep-hope-alive ethic in the face of all the modern-day violence, and the other painted the prospects for improvement, in the 21st century, through vastly enhanced communication technology. Designated discussants and panelists came principally from EBF boards and local activists, and general discussion was encouraged, if not always achieved. The program concluded with a workshop given by the instructor with the sword on the verbal de-escalation of violence. Overall, the goals of the conference--to introduce Beckerians and Girardians to each other and to the educated public--were well met. No longer does the association of love and violence seem incongruous.
For copies of the program and tapes and texts of the talks contact Neil Elgee, Pres., Ernest Becker Foundation, 3621 72nd Ave SE, Mercer Island WA 98040.
Neil Elgee
COV&R Conference in Philadelphia November 17, 1995
David W. Odell-Scott (Kent State University), A/t-onement, Exclusion and Orthodoxy: 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:4
For Paul, "to atone" is not an act of purification by which an individual or a community overcomes "defilement" through sacrifice, separation and/or exclusion. Atonement is not becoming or achieving "sanctification." Instead, to atone is to unite, "to be at-one," with one's opposite in Christ (i.e., male/female, slave/free, Jew/Gentile, God/World, etc.). To aid the elucidation of this theme, I will offer a general reading of 2 Cor 5:16-7:4, with emphasis on the problematic text of 6:14-7:1. Verses 6:14-7:1 are employed to warrant exclusionary practices in Christendom, including the expulsion of "non-believers" who are identified as contaminates and the annulment of marriages between Christians and non-Christians. The text was used to justify not only the expulsion of Jews, but, given the "defilement" discourse and the promise of holy purification, was understood by many as supporting anti-semantic violence (holocaust). Employing my earlier structural analysis of Corinthians (A Post-Patriarchal Christology, Scholars Press, 1991), I argue that vv 6:14-7:1 are a composite text composed by Paul's critics and quoted by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. I contend that the critics' composite argument includes a direct critique of Paul's ministry of reconciliation (vv 14-16), offers a theonomic-patriarchal promise (vv 16-18), and a call for the expulsion of all defiling unbelievers in order that the community may attain sacred perfection (7:1). I argue that Paul includes this critics' text in his letter to demonstrate the power of the ministry of reconciliation (evident in vv 6:11-13, and 7:2-4) to a/t-one opposites in Christ, thus seeking to overcome the deployment of "sacred violence" by those within the Christian community seeking their own advantage.
Employing Girard's mimetic model and the thesis that violence and religion significantly influence the genesis and maintenance of culture, I contend that Paul's critics in the case above were not "heretics," but the proto-types of orthodox Christendom who were seeking to create and maintain a Christian culture/society through the uses of sacred violence. Thus Paul, as an early critic of the structures of violence that were becoming normative in the primitive churches, may be read as a critic of the genesis of "Christen-dom."
Thee Smith (Emory University), Report on "Violence Conversion: Towards a Theory and Practice of Benign Force"
Introduction: This was a lecture-practicum-response format, with Thee Smith presenting a theory of "violence conversion" from his work-in-progress, followed by a demonstration of that theory with participation of the audience, and concluding with prepared responses by Barbara A.B. Patterson of Emory University and Richard Fenn of Princeton Theological Seminary.
Theory: "Violence Conversion" is a theory-and-practice for enabling the enactors and survivors of systemic violence (most of us) together to recognize and recover from its toxic operation in our lives, and even free ourselves from its formative power in our histories, cultures and institutions. The theory is most compelling when demonstrated in practicums such as workshop facilitations, when practiced in interpersonal and intergroup relations, and when experienced in larger social and historical developments (hence the insistence in this presentation on a practice component). Such a practicum is designed to model what human community can be like under optimal "interdividual" (Girard) conditions, and therein to empower practitioners to foster those conditions in their ordinary affairs. Central to this model is the following feature: subjects are persuaded and enabled to retrieve into full consciousness, and then to relinquish, their self-representation as victims. The simultaneous recognition and then disavowal or one's own sense of victimization effectively defuses the impulse toward acquisitive rivalry or compensatory revenge--the impulse that fuels violent behavior and ordinary complicity in systemic social violence. Typically, subjects experience this simultaneous recognition and disavowal as cathartic and healing, i.e. "converting," and give evidence of being intent and empowered for more benign and transformative behavior in their lives. The fulfillment of that intent and potential depends, of course, on regular practice of an adequate model, whether this one or some other. In theory the proposed practice models a "beloved community" (Royce, King) in which practitioners assist each other in recovering from, anticipating and countering the effects of systemic victimization. Especially treated are the impulses to treat one's victimization with ostensibly curative forms of violence, incipient or proto-violence (cf. Bailie, Wink, "the myth of redemptive violence").
Practice: The presentation of this theory was followed by a practicum in which participants were asked to think of their own lifestories in response to the following questions:
1. When was a time when you successfully resolved a situation of rivalry, scapegoating, persecution or conflict without resorting to violence or threatened violence?
2. When was a time when you failed to do so?
3. When was a time when you yourself were the victim of such treatment?
4. How is item #2 related to item #3?
5. How would you like to replay item #2 without the influence of item #3?
One participant in particular volunteered to share his storied responses to these questions before the group. As facilitator, Thee Smith assisted this participant in retelling his story with particular attention to eliciting the cathartic, healing, and converting features of the model. Following the participant's response to the five questions he was encouraged to make commitments to powerful, nonviolent actions in the future, and other participants responded to him with affirmations of support and esteem.
Responses: Barbara Patterson of Emory University responded from the perspective of her studies in women's spirituality and psychosocial experience. She was especially concerned that the social conditioning of women in cultures of domination (nearly all cultures) deprive them of status as subjects in their own right. From that perspective a model of psychosocial transformation such as the one presented by Thee Smith might need to attend to a prior practice of reconstituting the self, before attempting to "convert" or heal in a way that presupposes a substantive or integral self-identity or representation. Richard Fenn of Princeton was concerned with the dyadic structure of the practice--that is, its reduction of psychosocial dynamics to a facilitator and a subject or to two practitioner-subjects. His critique was insistent that dyads of relationship are the breeding ground for the rivalry and conflict that the model intends to overcome, but that it fails to overcome except in an illusory or manipulative way by means of covertly coercing the subject. An alternative, Fenn insists, is to find third parties as counterforces to every dyadic mimetic relationship, in order to free both parties from their fascination and incipient rivalry with each other. Other participant responses included those of Rebecca Adams, Sandor Goodhart and Walter Wink. Rebecca Adams was intrigued by the convergence of this theory-and-practice with her own work on a practical application of the mimetic model. Sandy Goodhart was concerned with the warrants which entitle and qualify a community to undertake such healing work. Walter Wink reported on his own theory-practice efforts in the community of scholars and shared some wisdom about the viability of creating healing community in the academy. In general there was much excitement about and interest in the possibility of such presentations in future COV&R meetings.
Reviews
Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads. New York: Crossroad, 1995, 293 pp.; $24.95.
Most of us in COV&R know Gil Bailie, and many of us have enjoyed the tape recordings of his seminar sessions in Sonoma. We thus know something of his shining personality and speaking ability. This book, however, is a stunning achievement for which, in my view, Gil's prior accomplishments could not have prepared us. Combining a wide reading of biblical, classical, and modern sources with an extraordinary sensitivity to popular culture, especially in the United States, it is the most accessible work of profound cultural criticism from a Christian standpoint that I have read in many years.
Drawing upon myth, poetry, and the daily newspaper, sometimes tending toward the homiletical without being "preachy," Bailie devotes most of the first six chapters to explicating the work of René Girard. He clarifies Girard's thesis that sacred violence is at the center of traditional cultures. Mimetic desire, the acquisitive desire for objects desired by others, is the reason why rivalry and violence occur; these are typically resolved by victimization or scapegoating, which is in turn sacralized. The primary means of controlling violence has therefore traditionally been achieved through rituals of scapegoating and sacrifice: the victim immolated or expelled is the subsitute for all.
The Jewish and Christian scriptures, especially the Gospels with their witness to the exposure of sacred violence through the crucified Christ, have brought about the demystication of sacred violence, which has lost its moral legitimacy wherever the gospel has spread (often in spite of institutional Christianity). Accordingly, chapters seven through twelve focus on biblical texts. The last two chapters bring the book to a climax through developing two of the prior motifs: the concealment of sacred violence in Western philosophy ("Where Are the Philosophers Now?") and the voice of the victim ("The Voice from La Cruz"). This latter chapter is just as moving as the prior one, on the blindness of philosophy, is convincing. Bailie concludes his epilogue by quoting Girard: "... the truth of the victim that we at last possess is the greatest, most fortunate event in the history of religion and the whole of humanity" (p. 276; quoted from Girard, Job: The Victim of His People. Stanford, 1987, p. 108).
The greatest and most obvious contribution of this book is its acute, often poetic explication of Girard and its Girardian reading of the Bible, religion, and culture. Bailie demonstrates the crisis that the gospel exposure of sacred violence has brought about, but he also articulates with great power the gospel's message of liberation from sanctioned violence.
Another contribution is the author's critique of the philosophical tradition. Particularly telling is his demonstration of the sacred violence that lies at the heart of Heidegger's notion of Being. This sacred violence is not apparent only in Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, which was orginally given as a set of lectures at the University of Freiburg in 1935. Many of Heidegger's defenders have tried to rationalize this book as an anomaly (like his Nazi party membership from 1933 to 1945) which is unrelated to his earlier Being and Time or to his subsequent "turn" to mythopoesis. Bailie argues that even the "later" Heidegger, in articulating the object and subject of thought which withdraws, yet pulls thought toward it, was so close and yet so far from the foot of the Cross. What withdraws, what is "hidden since the foundation of the world," is the violence done to the victim that was formerly managed through sacrificial ritual, concealed in myth, and hedged about by cultural prohibitions. Philosophy began by demythologizing, and Nietzsche, Ortega, and Heidegger achieved what seemed to be radical demythologization. But without the gospel philosophy has always remythologized.
"Where are the philosophers now?" Certainly not on the hill called La Cruz during the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador. On La Cruz there was an evangelical Christian girl who kept singing after she had been raped and shot and the blood was flowing from her chest. The government soldiers had to cut off her neck with machetes to still her. From La Cruz--"the cross"--the girl's voice has survived. When this voice is heard, then "Where is the sage? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?" Bailie concludes this chapter with telling force by quoting Girard: "In reality, no purely intellectual process and no experience of a purely philosophical nature can secure the individual the slightest victory over mimetic desire and its victimage delusions...For there to be even the slightest degree of progress, the victimage delusion must be vanquished on the most intimate level of experience" (p. 272; Girard, Things Hidden, p. 399).
It is certainly possible to quibble with Bailie here and there. e.g., with respect to his biblical exegesis at points or with his deciphering of certain contemporary events. But I think the statement on the dust jacket will be true for most of the readers who become engaged with this book: "Those who have read Violence Unveiled claim that they will never read the Bible or study history or watch the evening news the same way again."
James G. Williams
Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan. New York: Random House, 1995. 214 pp; $23.00.
This book will be of interest to some Bulletin readers because the mimetic approach has reopened the question of the status of evil and the significance of the traditional figure of Satan. This book is a valuable example of how a contemporary scholar can deal with very pertinent material, come close to opening up the subject at a profound level, but ends up simply by trivializing it because she is so caught up in current intellectual fashions.
Elaine Pagels is well known for her studies of Gnosticism, particularly The Gnostic Gospels (1979). She is also the author of the widely read Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (1988). Her thesis in the present book is that the Christian tradition has "allowed for the demonizing of others" (p. xix), and this "fault line" may be traced back to the NT Gospels and the very beginnings of Christianity.
She does not really trace a religious or cultural history of Satan as symbol and concept, but focuses first on Christianity's Jewish background and origin. Her basic conclusions are two: (1) Socially and psychologically Satan is a way of referring to the "intimate enemy," the trusted person or persons who betray one out of hostile jealousy. (2) This conflict of the self vis-à-vis others is then projected onto opponents, who are "demonized," understood as Satanic, representatives of Satan. In the emergence and development of Christianity this projection occurred in radical fashion. These conclusions are pursued in a historical overview of the Gospels, of Christianity against paganism, and of the Christian struggle with heretics.
It is a bad book, but clearly written and on a popular subject, so it will undoubtedly be widely read. Its unexamined assumptions include pragmatic relativism (an idea or conviction cannot be "true," but it's good if it works now), moral autonomy (each person is obligated only to act by his or her own standards), and a Romantic view of human nature (human nature is good, transcendent evil does not exist). She continues, as in earlier writings, to extol the Gnostics as contrasted to the "dualistic" orthodox Christians, whereas many forms of Gnosticism were in fact radically dualistic. But the egregiously bad dimension of the book is the way in which she scapegoats the Gospels for alleged demonization of the "other."
It is just this question of demonization of opponents that will be my focus in this review. Two things are to be noted. First, the Gospel of Mark sets the synoptic pattern of always associating demons and demon possession with crowds. (Likewise in John, but most of the mentions of demon possession in the Fourth Gospel relate that a crowd of people accuse Jesus of having a demon. John 7:20; 8:48, 52; 10:20.) The one apparent exception to the synoptic pattern, the episode of the Syrophoenician woman who seeks out Jesus to exorcise her daughter (Mark 7:24-30), simply proves the rule. He has retreated from the crowds and she, in faith, has come out of the crowds (like the woman who touches Jesus in Mark 5:25-34). Not once is any person called a demon or devil.
Second, the association of demons with crowds, which can easily become mobs, is important for understanding the origin of Satan. The Gospels attest that Satan is "mimetic desire," which is associated above all with the yearning and surging of crowds to obtain healing, food, security. This mimetic desire is what Jesus overcomes in the temptation accounts in Matthew and Luke: it is expressly stated in the temptation to be given authority over all kingdoms of the world, but it is implied in the other two temptations. As Feodor Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor tells the silent Christ, all the general populace actually wants is miracle, mystery, and authority.
Mimetic desire results inevitably in rivalry, conflict, and violence. Satan is the spirit of the desire to outdo the other, the spirit of accusation and violence. Satan is the projection and personification of mimetic desire. Pagels' insight concerning Satan as the "intimate enemy" would have been very useful if she had deepened and extended it, particularly in showing how the Gospels expose destructive desire and offer an alternative vision to it. The crowd scenes in the Gospels are remarkable for showing the working of desire for ill (Mark 3:7-13, 21-30; 15:6-15), but sometimes for good if the model is one of sharing and reconciliation (Mark 6:34-44; 8:1-9).
It is this and not, as Pagels contends, the Gospel writers' political maneuvering that best accounts for the relatively favorable light in which Pontius Pilate is cast: even the representative of mighty Rome is subject to the power of the crowd according to Mark. And if he is depicted increasingly in Matthew, Luke, and John as resistant to the crowd before finally submitting, this portrayal emphasizes that power originates with the crowd, whose seething desires would turn them against one another or the authorities unless they found an outlet in a victim. Satan's origin in the mimetic desire of the crowd also clarifies other passages, which have been labeled as anti-Jewish. If Pharisees are intended as the "sons of the evil one" in Matthew 13:38, which is not at all certain, this would be because they are persecutors of Jesus, trying to turn crowds against him. As for the Jews in John 8:44 who are told they belong to "your father the devil," they had once believed in Jesus and now they threaten to turn on him as a mob. To take one more example, the infamous verse, Matthew 27:25: here those present accept the curse of innocent blood upon themselves and their children. But the "people" are earlier identified as a "crowd" (ochlos) whom "the chief priests and the elders persuaded to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus" (27:15, 20). So again, the negative picture of opponents has to do with opponents who stir up the crowd, turning it into a mob. The point is not that Pharisees or Jews are more likely than any others to lynch the innocent victim in times of crisis. The point is rather the exposure of desire and scapegoating that is the key to the Gospels.
Pagels concludes her book by expressing the hope that her research "may illuminate for others, as it has for me, the struggle within Christian tradition between the profoundly human view that 'otherness' is evil and the words of Jesus that reconciliation is divine" (p. 184). If it is a "profoundly human view" that "otherness" is evil, then it is universal, not just a phenomenon of the history of Christianity. And how can we know and accept that Jesus teaches divine reconciliation if the Gospels are attacked as the primary texts for propagating the power of Satan, the spirit of accusation and triumph over the other?
James G. Williams
A Jewish-Christian Dialogue IV:Sandor Goodhart, "Second Reply to Raymund Schwager"
I thank Father Schwager for writing his "Second Reply" to my work and thus continuing the exploration of matters important to both of us. I am especially gratified that he finds my "direct and frank" approach helpful as a way of getting "beneath of the surface" of the discussion since I too feel that "only" if we lay our cards on the table we can hope for real progress. Let me begin with his more general remarks expressed at the end of his article to which his earlier more limited objections may not be unrelated and with which there may be considerably more agreement between us than first appears.
Father Schwager is speaking in the final paragraph about a study by Pinchas Lapides in which the author lodges Jesus within the prophetic tradition and assigns him the role of "preparation of the heathen world for the Jewish Messiah." Father Schwager regards this approach "very positively" both because it utilizes the categories of Christian theology and because it does not condemn. He envisions a future understanding between Jews and Christians in which Jews will have to give up regarding Jesus as a magician who seduces Israel and acknowledge Jesus as "a Jewish prophet with a special mission in the pagan world," and in which Christians will have to give up the traditional theological position that the Church has "finally replaced Israel in its function in the history of salvation," a relinquishing which Father Schwager attests he "personally" accepts.
If this set of ideas is indeed the core of Father Schwager's position, then this exchange has been an especially propitious one since I have no fundamental disagreements with it. Jesus is a Jewish individual working within the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah and Isaiah (among others), within an assimilated context in Hellenized Judaism, who is attempting to carry the prophetic message of the law of anti-idolatry to both those Jews who have begun to turn away from their ancient Jewish heritage and to the non-Jewish world. He is not a magician or a sorcerer but a serious prophetic thinker who is enacting a task he finds marked out for him in texts throughout Torah (for example, in the Joseph story in Genesis) and as such he merits our deepest admiration and attention. The belief that Jesus is a conjuror must be rejected as sacrificial and anti-Jewish. And if Father Schwager includes within his position a renunciation of the Church's traditional claim to have superseded Israel, then we have indeed little about which to disagree. The role of Christians from a Jewish perspective must be the missionary one; to extend the message of the Jewish law of anti-idolatry to the world until Israel becomes "the light of nations." And the role of Jews from a Christian perspective must be the interpretive one; to keep elaborating, explaining, extending the text of Torah as fundamentally anti-sacrificial and as containing the world. Finally, it seems to me possible to agree with Father Schwager that even Paul may not be for Jews "an unsurpassable hindrance" so long as we find in Paul not a rejection of Jews or Judaism as sacred violence (as some have recently claimed) but, to the contrary, an acceptance of the primacy of the prophetic message and of Jewish election. To become fully Christian, I would suggest, is to recognize in positive terms the ways in which one has always already been fully Jewish.
My agreement with Father Schwager's final remarks, in fact, is so extensive that I hesitate to even to raise the earlier objections over which we may differ. If I do so, it is because Father Schwager has been kind enough to indicate them and because to some extent they begin to exceed the parameters to which Father Schwager confines his position later.
1. In the first paragraph for example, I think we may be talking about different understandings of true and false interpretations. Judaism must of necessity reject secular Platonic and Hegelian understandings of the true as aleitheia--as absolute being that which lies beyond contradiction--and which we may approach in good Socratic fashion only by reason and rational decision-making. Father Schwager seems to think that if I give up Plato and Hegel, I become a nihilist (as René Girard has characterized nihilism), that I commit myself to "indeterminacy." I do not. Reason, faith, and conscious belief may be sufficient for Christians. They are not so for Jews. Jewish currents run deeper than that. The Jewish task is not to decide whether a text of Torah or a rabbinic proposition is right or wrong, true or false, but to own our own history within it and assume responsibility for the other individual to who I am primordially obligated by virtue of it. Here I am relying, of course, upon the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Buber, and Franz Rosenzweig. René Girard's work on mimesis and violence is powerful for me not because it is true but because it is Jewish, because it offers me a vocabulary for explaining my own history and allowing me to assume responsibility. Plato needs things to be decided. Sophocles does not. Nor does Dostoyevsky. Nor does Judaism. Father Schwager may decide for himself whether or not Platonism is essential to his understanding of Christianity or the continuation of his theological work. Judaism does not commit me to being right but to being responsible, to loving God with all my heart and all my soul, to loving others in place of myself. That love and responsibility is my task as part of my co-partnership with God in the creation of the world (as such creation is revealed to us in Torah), and that task will continue until the moment of redemption and the world to come.
Thus Job and his friends are both wrong and right successively and the text enacts for the reader the passage from one position to the other. The prophets may disagree diametrically with each other but each text offers access to God from within a particular historical hour and moment. One Jewish community proposes one understanding of a text of Torah. Another proposes a different understanding of the same text. But both accept Torah as the infinite within the finite, however differently inflected within their individual tongues. If I claim a distinction between the sacrificial and the anti-sacrificial (or invoke René Girard's distinction), it is not because I find one true and the other false but because I find the latter more comprehensive, more ethical, more promotive of life, love, human relation, and human responsibility than the former. The victim of mob violence--whether in the Christian Gospel or Isaiah 52-3--is exposed as innocent not by dogmatic declaration concerning true and false interpretations but by close careful patient textual reading which dismantles the positions of the persecutors, just as Jesus offers his body to his disciples as a "teaching tool," both when he writes in the sand before the would-be stone throwers in the episode of the woman accused of adultery, or more generally when he offers himself as a victim of sacrificial expulsion to show us where our violence is leading. I leave aside Father Schwager's question about the politics of the state of Israel--and in general the relation between the political and the ethical--for another occasion.
2. If all the world finally will be shown to be a part of the "blueprint" which is Torah, then God will in retrospect turn out to have acted through Cyrus as well as through the "suffering servant." God does not take sides between us but within us. He takes the side of the victims we are all capable of becoming or have become against the persecutors we are all equally capable of becoming or have already become. Judaism is not a Manichaeism (however attractive it is for Christians to read it as such) but a monism of the deepest order. All the world--both the evil inclination (the yetzer hara) and the good inclination (the yetzer tov)--will be shown finally to be a part of the divine plan which Torah has simply seen in advance.
3. Finally, if the followers of Jesus lay claim to his resurrection, it is indeed fully within the Jewish tradition (for example, that of Maimonides) that they speak. Judaism does not reject the claim that the dead will be resurrected with the coming of the Messiah, only that one individual has already gone through the process. But it does not seem to me critical in any event to the efficacy of René Girard's thesis that one accept Jesus' resurrection. It is entirely sufficient that we understand the mechanism of mimetic rivalry and sacrificial violence as the foundation of human community without venturing into the intricacies of Pharisaic law (or its violation)--especially by means of a text explicitly hostile to it. Jesus is an innocent victim because the text explains him as such and because he thought of his life in such terms (as the text presents those thoughts and that life to us). To lay the weight of Jesus' life upon what happened afterwards--however much the disciples were convinced that the resurrection occurred, and however much Christianity since has staked itself upon such a literalist reading--is to diminish the importance of that life. Michelangelo seems to have imagined precisely such a danger in his famous Florentine pietà when he sculpted the body of the flesh and blood Jesus slipping irretrievably away from the hands of his adoring and preoccupied family and friends.
An added word on this point. If René Girard's thought is to have a world-wide hearing--and it seems to me that such a hearing should be our goal for it--then it cannot be a precondition of such thought that those who are attracted to it accept either Jewish or Christian postulates, postulates that would effectively close it off from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and countless other religious commitments. Judaism may be my way. Christianity may be Father Schwager's and René Girard's way. But Girardian thinking cannot be limited to any of these paths. Rather than constrain René Girard's thought in such a fashion, it seems to me more prudent to emphasize its extraordinary explanatory power, even if we choose individually to regard that power as testimony to efficacy of our own approaches.
Father Schwager's reliance in his earlier objections upon true and false interpretations and upon traditional literalist and interventionist assumptions about the Jewish God, seem to me, in short, to challenge the genuinely open remarks he offers in his final paragraph. They prompt in me a question for Father Schwager. How do his earlier distinctions and assumptions differ from the position that Saint Augustine renounced in his Confessions as a product of the seductions of youth--a dualistic belief in absolute right and wrong, good and evil, true and false--for a more loving and compassionate God of reading, the word, and the book? If we are to make progress in Jewish-Christian dialogue, I suggest we emphasize those points on which we agree and work from there--namely, the giving up of mutual condemnation, and the ownership of mutual filiation in a project entailing both missionary and interpretive tasks.
If I may, here is a suggestion toward this end. Shortly before his death, Rabbi Abraham Heschel is said to have offered to Christian friends the sketch of a possible future joint path. Rabbi Heschel is said to have remarked: "You say the Messiah has already come but is going to return. We say the Messiah is still to come for the first time. Come, let us stand and wait for him together. And when he arrives, we'll ask him."
COV&R is on the Internet
Announcements concerning upcoming conferences and satellite meetings are being posted and we look forward to a lively and informative discussion group. You can subscribe to the listserv at the following address:COVR@ECUVM1.BITNET
In the event you have problems signing up or are not sure how to initiate the proceedure, please send me your email address and I will be glad to enter your subscription.
Judith H. Arias
Address:
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
Bitnet: FLARIAS@ECUVM1
Internet: FLARIAS@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU
New Books
Büchele, Herwig. Eine Welt oder keine: Sozialethische Grundfragen angesichts einer ausbleibenden Weltordnungspolitik. Innsbruck, Mainz: Tyrolia / Grünewald, 1996.
Dumouchel, Paul. Émotions: essai sur le corps et le social. Collection: Les empêcheurs de penser en rond. Paris: Synthélabo, 1995.
Grande, Per Bjørnar. Etterligningens dilemma [The Mimetic dilemma]. With a translation of Girard's essay 'Strategies of Madness: Nietzsche, Wagner and Dostoevsky'. HSF Rapport 7/95. Oslo: Falch, 1995.
Happel, Hans-Michael. Ursachen und Bedingungen von Konflikten zwischen Kollektiven. Reihe Sozialwissenschaften 1. Göttingen: Unitext-Verlag, 1994.
Niewiadomski, Józef and Palaver, Wolfgang, ed. Vom Fluch und Segen der Sündenböcke: Raymund Schwager zum 60. Geburtstag. Beiträge zur mimetischen Theorie 1. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.
Schenk, Richard, ed. Zur Theorie des Opfers: Ein interdisziplinäres Gespräch. Collegium Philosophicum 1. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995.
Future Events
June 27-29, Stanford University. Theme: Ethnic Conflict in International Perspective. Organizer: Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly. Note: The Advisory Board will meet on Wednesday, June 26. Advisory Board members will need to arrive by the evening of June 25.
November 23 (and perhaps 24), 1996 in New Orleans in conjunction with AAR/SBL N.B.! This is a correction: it was announced in the last issue that this meeting would be in San Francisco. It is the 1997 convention of AAR/SBL that will take place in San Francisco.
June 24-26, 1997 in Graz, Austria: Theme: Film and Modernity: Violence and Religion. Organizer: Gerhard Larcher.
Announcement of 1997 COV&R Meeting: Film and Modernity: Violence and Religion ( Universität Graz, June 24-26, 1997)
The annual meeting of COV&R in 1997 will take place in connection with the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz (Austria), that lasts from June 23 to June 29, 1997. The organizers of the Assembly are the Council of European Bishops' Conferences and the Conference of European Churches, a consultative body for the Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Churches in Europe. The theme of the Assembly will be "Reconciliation - Gift of God and Source of New Life". The following six central issues will be addressed during the Assembly:
1. The search for visible unity between the churches
2. Dialogue between the different religions and cultures
3. Commitment to social justice, and especially to overcome poverty, alienation and other forms of discrimination
4. Commitment to reconciliation within and between nations, and to non-violent solutions to conflict
5. A new practice of ecological responsibility, particularly with regard to future generations
6. Reconciliation with other world religions
To link our annual meeting with the Ecumenical Assembly has several advantages. It gives us the opportunity to interest a larger audience in the mimetic theory and helps us to find organizational and financial support. Our meetings in the morning will address especially the participants of our annual meeting. In the afternoon the conference will take place in the center of Graz and will be open for a broader audience.
The COV&R meeting will be in Graz, from the 24th-26th June, 1997. The theme of the meeting is Film and Modernity: Violence and Religion. Within the aesthetic development of modern times the emergence of film and cinema is particularly significant. Film implies a wide range of synaesthetic aspects, new technological approaches to aesthetics and represents a new way of aesthetics reaching the public. At the same time film is particularly modern as it follows the project of modernity to create new pictorial worlds challenging imagination and ideologies. Therefore its use for amusement and advertisement in industrial societies and also for propaganda purposes in totalitarian systems. As an aesthetic project of realized modernity film also implies and reflects the violent substructure of modern civilization--the 'iron cage' of Max Weber, the general processes of acceleration in modernity (Virilio) and its inclination to suppress conflicts by evading into fantastic artificial worlds.
It is therefore of high interest to confront Girard's theories on modernity and aesthetics with the ongoing aesthetic debate on film in Europe and America. The Institute of Fundamental Theology of the Universität Graz has already dealt with the relation between film and theology for several years and will be the main organizer of the whole conference.
Projected Program:
1. Film as an aesthetic and cultural project of modernity
2. Film and the specific violent dynamics of modernity
3. Violence, guilt and sacrificial structures in contemporary film (contributions from eastern Europe--e.g. E. Kusturicas Underground; American films; "Holocaust"-films)
Call for Papers
Interested members of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion are kindly requested to contact either the Institut für Fundamentaltheologie der Universität Graz or the Institut für Dogmatik der Universität Innsbruck with suggestions as far as themes, film examples and papers are concerned. It would be a great help to receive such proposals in time, i. e., before our annual meeting at Stanford University in June 1996, so that accommodation for the participants, the reservation of cinemas and films and the place for the symposium itself can be definitely organized.
Addresses:Gerhard Larcher or Christian Wessely, Institut für Fundamentaltheologie, Universität Graz, Bürgergasse 3, A-8010 Graz, Austria
Tel. (43 316) 825300
FAX: (43 316) 825300-4
E-mail: glarcher@bpas01.kfunigraz.ac.at
wessely@balu.kfunigraz.ac.at
Raymund Schwager, Institut für Dogmatik, Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 4, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Tel. (43 512) 507-8561
FAX: (43 512) 507-2959
E-mail: Raymund.Schwager@uibk.ac.at
Ethnic Conflict in International Perspective
The Annual Summer Meeting of COV&R at Stanford University, sponsored by the Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University (June 27-29, 1996)
Lodging: Lodging will be in Sterling Quadrangle of Governor's Corner one our newest student housing complexes. Sterling Quad is located amongst stands of California live oaks near the Stanford golf course. It looks onto the driving range. There are three types of room available, a single, a two-room double, and a one-room double. The single room is simply that; the two room double is two separate rooms, one inner and one outer, linked by an intervening door. The inhabitant of the inner room has to pass through the outer room to go in and out and for this reason they are considered shared not single rooms. The one room double is a single room with two beds in it, suitable probably for couples. Costs for lodging are $47.25 per night for a single room; $34 per person per night for a double room. Accommodations have full housekeeping service Monday-Friday. You may come early and stay late, using your campus room as a base for exploring the San Francisco Bay area. The earliest you may check in is after 5 PM on Friday, June 21st, 1996. After the conference you may stay as long as there is space available, as determined by the university. The charges remain the same for these times. We shall provide you with maps and pamphlets to guide you in exploring the Bay area and Northern California. The plenary sessions will be held in the main meeting hall of the Eliot Conference Center. The hall is on the second floor and opens out onto a large Redwood deck that overlooks Lake Lagunita and gives a panorama of the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains. The Advisory board will meet in the conference room adjoining the hall. The Saturday morning "break-out" sessions will be held in seminar rooms in the residences of Sterling Quad., where most of us will be staying.
Board: Those registering for the conference and lodging on campus are required to pay for the meal package. It includes three meals per day and costs $62.65 per day. If your register for the conference but do not lodge on campus, you may but are not required to buy the meal package. You may purchase tickets for individual meals. If you are the spouse or significant other of a registered participant and you are staying on campus but not registering for the conference yourself, you are not required to take the package. You may purchase tickets for individual meals. Registered participants lodging on campus cannot purchase meal tickets but must purchase the whole package. The food is very good, elegantly served on white linen, in the dining room and out on a patio under trellises covered with Wisteria. Wine from the Woodside Vineyards will be served with evening meals. The catering service is accustomed to serving international business conferences, one of which will be going on at the time of our conference.
Recreation: Registered conference participants have the use of the nearby golf course for the cost of the green fees, the nearby tennis courts, and the several university swimming pools. There are several jogging and walking trails within easy reach. Depending on how the program develops we may attend an organ festival on the Friday evening in the University Church, when all three of the church's exquisite organs will be played by virtuosi participating in the San Anselmo Music Festival.
Costs: Board and lodging costs to be paid in full on arrival, payable to COV&R.
Room and board from dinner on Wednesday June 26 through breakfast on Sunday June 30: $350 (per person double occupancy); $405 (per person single occupancy)
Advisory Board supplement for extra day from Tuesday dinner through Wednesday lunch: $100 (per person double occupancy); $110 (per person single occupancy)
Accommodation of spouse: $34 per night.
Conference fee (includes price of wine and the banquet on Saturday): $75 for COV&R members; $100 for non-members
General Information: Parking permits can be purchased on arrival. Conference ID card entitles you to use tennis and swimming facilities, and to play on the golf course for a fee. Info packet after we receive registration will contain map, info on shuttle service from airport, info on what to do in the area, info on how to contact participants while on campus. Marguerite, the campus bus service, runs on weekdays. For further questions please contact:
Robert Hamerton-Kelly
CISAC
320 Galvez Street
Stanford, California 94305-6165
Telephone: 415-725-5367
E-mail: Rc.Rob@Forsythe.Stanford.edu