Violence and the Exception of Christian Revelation

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 151-172
Author(s):  
Philip J. P. Gonzales ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
Benedict Xvi ◽  
René Girard ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Understanding

If violence is not the exception but the nomos under which we live, how can one gain a view of violence from outside the regime of violence and the history of its effects? This essay argues that the only way to confront the regime of violence’s history is to have recourse to a Judeo-Christian understanding of revelation and its exceptional non-violent message. A Christocentric philosophy of history, of broadly Augustinian contours, is presented which seeks to confront the nomos of violence with the Logos of peace. The enactment of this Christocentric perspective will be accomplished via a confrontation between René Girard and Giorgio Agamben read in view of their respective engagements with the thought of Benedict XVI.

Conclusion

Manhunts ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grégoire Chamayou ◽  
Steven Rendall
Keyword(s):  
Rene Girard ◽  
René Girard ◽  
History Of ◽  
Uniform Model

This concluding chapter summarizes key themes and presents some final thoughts. This book outlines the history of the changing morphology of cynegetic powers, the ones that are exercised by tracking and capturing subjects. Whereas an author like René Girard postulates a kind of invariant of violence in human societies that is for him essentially based on a logic of expiatory sacrifice, this book has instead tried to bring out what was specific, in their motives and functions, to each of the great historical phenomena of manhunting. Contrary to what the theory of the scapegoat claims, the choice of prey, for example, is never arbitrary or “relatively indifferent”: it is governed by targeted strategies that remain unintelligible so long as they are reduced to the uniform model of a sacrificial violence.

scholarly journals A permanência do sagrado na sociedade secularizada

Reflexão ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Glauco Barsalini
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
René Girard

Em Totem e tabu, Sigmund Freud resgata o termo sagrado dentre os romanos, associando-o ao significado do termo tabu, para os polinésios, os quais atribuíam a tabu a conotação de “santo, consagrado”, por um lado, e de “inquietante, perigoso, proibido e impuro”, por outro. O antropólogo René Girard desenvolve, especialmente a partir de estórias da mitologia, instigante tese a respeito do sacrifício e do que ele denomina crise sacrificial no mundo moderno. O centro de suas discussões é a figura do bode expiatório. Finalmente, Giorgio Agamben identifica a atualidade do debate sobre o sagrado no mundo secularizado contemporâneo, tendo em vista a figura do homo sacer, aquele que está fora do amparo da lei. Pretende-se, nesse artigo, explorar a possível ligação entre os conceitos de tabu, de bode expiatório e de homo sacer. Quer-se, com tal investigação, contribuir para as discussões atuais a respeito da presença do elemento religioso sobre o político e o jurídico na contemporaneidade. Palavras-chave: Bode expiatório. Homo sacer. Tabu. Totem.

All American Messiah

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 131-148
Author(s):  
William David Hall ◽  
Ezra Howard
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
Captain America ◽  
René Girard ◽  
Marvel Comics

Approaches the recent death of Captain America sideline of Marvel Comics from the perspective of political theology and philosophical messianism as these ideas appear in the works of Giorgio Agamben, Rene Girard, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Schmitt.

scholarly journals BAKHTIN AND RENE GIRARD ON DOSTOEVSKY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
Kirill Rodin
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
Critical Comparison ◽  
René Girard ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Literature

The article provides a critical comparison of two independent interpretations of F. M. Dostoevsky: from the side of M. Bakhtin and from the side of Rene Girard. Both authors have created coherent ways of understanding and reading the literary heritage of the writer in the perspective of their own understanding of the history of literature and the intellectual history of mankind as such. Dostoevsky is significant for Bakhtin not simply as an illustration of the applicability of some of his own ideas within the framework of literary criticism. Bakhtin sees Dostoevsky as an innovator in the development of the menippea genre and an unprecedented dialogization of literature. At the same time, without Dostoevsky, the movement of literature postulated by Girard towards the embodiment of the Gospel revelation would be incomplete. The incompleteness of Girard or Bakhtin without Dostoevsky (with all the reservations) is not fundamental. Without Dostoevsky, history as such fundamentally changes for Girard and for Bakhtin. The apparent incomparability of the authors makes it possible to read Dostoevsky differently. From the context of Girard, the meaning of Bakhtin's works and, inevitably, the meaning of laughter and dialogue (polyphony) in history are significantly transformed. On the other hand, the ways of including Dostoevsky in the image of history created by Girard, independently of Bakhtin, also run into difficulties.

scholarly journals Trends in the history of research on the problem of violence in the Old Testament

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-145
Author(s):  
S. D. Snyman
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
René Girard ◽  
History Of ◽  
Major Attention ◽  
Old Testament Studies

Violence as theological problem is a relative newcomer to the scene of Old Testament studies. It was only during the 1970’s that violence was given major attention by Old Testament scholars. In a number of studies the main focus was on Yahweh and his relation to violence. By the late I970’s the theories of Rene Girard on violence were applied to the Old Testament and played an important role in the thinking of Old Testament scholars on violence. In the last part of the article proposed solutions to the problem of violence in the Old Testament are discussed.

scholarly journals Philosophical Foundations of René Girard’s Fundamental Antropology

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Elena Shulga ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
René Girard ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
External Causes ◽  
The Given

Rene Girard (1923–2015) – French philosopher, professor of Stanford University, the member of Acadamie Francaise, the author of numerous works, some of which have recently become accessible to the Russian audience. His most popular books: "Resurrection from the Underground", "Violence and the Sacred", "Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World", "Job, the Victim of His People", "I See Satan Fall Like Lightning", "The Scapegoat". However, Rene Girard's conceptual heritage has not been properly appreciated by philosophers due to the diversity of creative aspirations of the thinker. Most often, he is called a professional philologist, religious scholar, cultural scientist, and his work as an innovator in the field of social and humanitarian sciences is associated with the creation of fundamental anthropology and the theory of culture based on it. Studying the works of Rene Girard is an exciting activity, supposing the immersion in the literary texts and biblical stories analyzed by him. These texts serve the author as a basis for solving the questions of vital importance for human existence and being. The search for answers to vital questions has always concerned both philosophers and theologians. Above all those are the questions related to the grasping of spiritual truths. Not always Girard formulated their meaning directly but through the introducing concepts that reveal the deeper aspects of socially directed human actions, providing these actions with a new categorical meaning. Thus, in the book "The Scapegoat", which will be analyzed in the given paper, the philosopher shows that the human ability to perceive own misery as the punishment for the specific misbehavior or sins is just the superficial point of view and it witnesses of the introvert character of the man/woman. But any personal catastrophe is also a sacrifice – precisely such point of view according to the biblical story of Job not only reconciles the man with life circumstances but raises him over them. Girard shows that the search for external causes that explain human misfortunes or catastrophes on a larger scale runs through the entire history of mankind is reflected in literature, historical and cultural monuments from Sophocles to Jesus. This article is devoted to the interpretation of the main conceptual ideas of Girard from the position of philosophical hermeneutics in order to clarify the philosophical foundations of fundamental anthropology.

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