René Girard, Unlikely Apologist

Grant Kaplan

Description

Since the late 1970s, theologians have been attempting to integrate mimetic theory into different fields of theology, yet a distrust of mimetic theory persists in some theological camps. In René Girard, Unlikely Apologist: Mimetic Theory and Fundamental Theology, Grant Kaplan brings mimetic theory into conversation with theology both to elucidate the relevance of mimetic theory for the discipline of fundamental theology and to understand the work of René Girard within a theological framework. Rather than focus on Christology or atonement theory as the locus of interaction between Girard and theology, Kaplan centers his discussion on the apologetic quality of mimetic theory and the impact of mimetic theory on fundamental theology, the subdiscipline that grew to replace apologetics. His book explores the relation between Girard and fundamental theology in several keys. In one, it understands mimetic theory as a heuristic device that allows theological narratives and positions to become more intelligible and, by so doing, makes theology more persuasive. In another key, Kaplan shows how mimetic theory, when placed in dialogue with particular theologians, can advance theological discussion in areas where mimetic theory has seldom been invoked. On this level the book performs a dialogue with theology that both revisits earlier theological efforts and also demonstrates how mimetic theory brings valuable dimensions to questions of fundamental theology.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la psychologie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• Religious
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Wilfred Cantwell Smith
• David Bentley Hart
• James Alison
• Apologetics
• Christology
• Christianity
• Anthropology
• Michael Buckley
• William Cavanaugh
• Social
• Charles Taylor
• Hans-Georg Gadamer
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Martin Heidegger

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 20 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268100889
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

REN GIRARD, UNLIKELY APOLOGIST
REN GIRARD, UNLIKELY APOLOGIST
Mimetic Theory and Fundamental Theology
GRANT KAPLAN
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
Copyright 2016 by the University of Notre Dame
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kaplan, Grant, author.
Title: Ren Girard, unlikely apologist : mimetic theory and fundamental theology / Grant Kaplan.
Description: Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028705 (print) | LCCN 2016032538 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268100858 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268100853 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268100872 (pdf ) | ISBN 9780268100889 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Girard, Ren , 1923-2015. | Desire (Philosophy) | Desire-Religious aspects-Christianity. | Apologetics. | Philosophical theology. | Christianity-Philosophy.
Classification: LCC B2430.G494 K37 2016 (print) | LCC B2430.G494 (ebook) | DDC 194-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028705
ISBN 9780268100889
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
This book is dedicated to Emily and to the fruits of our love, Maximilian and Augustine
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Mimetic Theory as Heuristic
CHAPTER 2
Mimetic Theory and Rational Faith
CHAPTER 3
Mimetic Theory and the Theology of Revelation
CHAPTER 4
Realizing a Mimetic Theology of Religion
CHAPTER 5
Imagining a Mimetic Ecclesiology
CHAPTER 6
Trajectories of Modernity: Girard and Taylor in Conversation
CHAPTER 7
Mimetic Theory and Atheism
Epilogue: One Final Apology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My impressionistic understanding of mimetic theory got its first real boost when the late Stephen J. Duffy, a colleague s colleague, encouraged me to include Ren Girard and Sebastian Moore in a course syllabus on original sin. In this period of gestation, I was browsing the book tables at a conference and noticed that Moore had endorsed James Alison s On Being Liked . This endorsement was enough to persuade me to purchase Alison s book. Those three authors-Girard, Moore, and Alison-were writing about what I wanted to think more about, questions at the heart of the Christian experience.
In the fall of 2007, I began an appointment at Saint Louis University. There I had the good fortune of gaining the friendship of Brian Robinette, who helped me understand mimetic theory more deeply, both through his written work and through our many conversations. His book Grammars of Resurrection and the positive reception it received convinced me of the viability of the project that has now come to fruition.
Around that time I had contacted Girard, and he agreed to meet with me in Palo Alto, California. We had lunch together and talked for most of an afternoon at his home. He also consented to an interview conducted a few months later. Our conversations reinforced my hunch that Girard was a Christian apologist, and with that the book project came into focus.
I have been giving papers on mimetic theory since 2009. I wish to thank the following venues for allowing me to articulate earlier parts of this project: the Mater Dei Institute, the Lonergan Workshop, the Saint Louis Society of Catholic Theologians, the Catholic Studies Program at Loyola University, Maryland, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the College Theology Society, and the Colloquium on Violence Religion (COV R). In less formal settings, the Campion Society of Saint Louis University and Bethel Lutheran Church in University City gave me forums for talking about how mimetic theory goes right to the heart of Christianity s most central claims. Of particular note was the 2013 COV R meeting, where Martha Reineke proposed that James Alison respond to the papers by John Edwards and me. This generous arrangement and James s insightful response encouraged me to push through to the end.
Various academic outfits have also supported me. I thank SLU s Department of Theological Studies and the university s Mellon Fund for travel funding and also for giving me a summer stipend in 2008. I am also thankful to the Peter Thiel Foundation for making me an Imitatio Fellow in 2012, and for fostering collaboration between scholars.
Kevin Vander Schel, Chelsea King, Ryan Duns, and Jordan Wood gave insightful comments on the entire manuscript. I also benefited greatly from the extensive comments and critique offered by the blind reviewers. All of these people made the work a much better one.
I have benefited greatly from an informal writing group within my department. James Voiss, Mary Dunn, Randy Rosenberg, and Bill O Brien offered helpful and generous feedback on some very rough drafts. In particular, Randy Rosenberg merits many thanks for helping me think through the fundamental and systematic points of contact between mimetic theory and theology. His Concrete Subjectivity and the Human Desire to See God , in print with the University of Toronto Press, will be of major import for mimetic theory.
I would also like to thank the many colleagues in the Department of Theological Studies who have encouraged me during the writing of this book. I am particularly thankful for the support of my department chair, Peter Martens. Other members of the SLU community, especially Jennifer Rust, Eleonore Stump, and Paul Lynch, have provided lively and memorable conversation in and outside the halls of our common humanities building. And I do not know how the project would have come to fruition without Benjamin de Foy, the incarnation of the scientist one dreams of having as a colleague when imagining life at a Catholic university.
Along the way I have been equipped with excellent research assistants. They have also taught me a thing or two about being a scholar and a writer. They include Jonathan King, Erick Moser, Robert Munshaw, Yvonne Angieri, James Lee, and Joshua Schendel. Thanks are also due to the participants in the Fall 2014 seminar on mimetic theory, in particular for their many good questions and high-level discussions. I am also grateful for the work that Friederike Ockert has done in helping me through the final stages of indexing the book.
Through COV R and Imitatio I have benefited from many conversations with both emerging and established scholars. In particular, I owe thanks to Jeremiah Alberg, Ann Astell, Scott Cowdell, John Edwards, Stephen Gardner, Joel Hodge, Mathias Moosbrugger, Wolfgang Palaver, Nikolas Wandinger, and James Williams. I am especially indebted to James Alison and Andrew McKenna. I began pestering James about his work a decade ago. Any prudent person would have run in the opposite direction. Lucky me. James s generosity exceeds his prudence. Andrew, likewise, has treated me like a family member, as he has done for so many other Girardians.
In the world of academic theology one is fortunate to find first-rate theologians committed to a common ecclesial mission, even while pursuing vastly different projects. I continue to be sustained by friendships with Beth Beshear Toft, John Betz, Ulrich Lehner, Anna Bonta Moreland, Trent Pomplun, Christopher Ruddy, and Jeremy Wilkins. I hope that my contribution might enrich them as much as their writings and words of wisdom enrich me.
The time between the book s infancy and completion has been marked by numerous births, deaths, and transformations. My partner, Emily, has patiently endured, and even enthusiastically promoted, a project that began around the time we fell in love. Her employment as a teacher at a single-sex school, additionally, has provided a steady stream of mimetic anecdotes. The gestation period of this book encompasses not only our wedding but also the birth of our two sons: Maximilian Rafter and Augustine Otto. Two deaths must be mentioned. John Jones, who served as the acquisitions editor at Crossroad/Herder, was the salesperson when I bought my first book by James Alison. The purchase sparked a conversation that led to a powerful friendship. It is a rarity for an editor (or anyone) to listen in the way that John listened to me. Being a friend of John s meant being welcomed into a listening presence that derived from a profound spirituality. He believed in me as a theologian and encouraged me in my work. One fruit of that belief was his decision to include my dissertation in an informal series devoted to young theologians at Crossroad/Herder. I think he loved me, and I know that I miss him.
Ren Girard passed away when the book was on the way to publication. In 2008 he gave me a copy of Achever Clausewitz , and his inscription gave blessing to my project. I dearly wish I could have shown it to him.
An earlier version of chapter 6 appeared as Widening the Dialectic: Secularity and Christianity in Conversation, in New Voices in Catholic Theology , ed. Anna Bonta Moreland and Joseph Curran (New York: Crossroad/Herder, 2012), 23-51. I thank Crossroad Publishing for permission to reproduce an amended version of the earlier chapter.
INTRODUCTION

In the 1960s and 1970s, a French intellectual produced a series of books and articles that, if nothing else, presented an affront to the very notion of disciplinary division. Trained as a historian, this intellectual s first major book offered a theory of the novel. He then developed a grand hypothesis of cultural origins without doing any fieldwork or having any training in anthropology and ethnology. He continued writing literary criticism until 1978, when he co-authored a book about, among other things, Christianity