From Enemy to Xenos

2013

This paper discusses Girard’s discovery of the undoing by the biblical tradition of a mechanism on which human culture rests worldwide. His literary studies brought him to the analysis of religious traditions and to the insight that sacrificial means are used in all human conduct to counterbalance the mimetic dependence by which people fear to lose their autonomy. Their common form is scapegoating, but Christ’s radicalization of the biblical message has exposed and invalidated its efficacy. The article discusses the quandary that emerged from this and the possible answer to the threatening derailment of society.

Buddhist-Christian Studies, 1998

The thesis of this paper is that the salvific work of Jesus reveals human violence as rooted in sacrifice, reverses the sacrificial logic of scapegoating, and substitutes a new basis for reconciliation between humanity and God. The paper begins with a short primer on René Girard's theory of religion and violence, elaborates on how the cross and resurrection subverts the typical logic of sacrifice, and how humanity is reconciled to God. Proceeding, Reformer John Calvin's Penal Substitutionary Atonement (P.S.A) theory provides an interlocutor to the proposed anti-sacrificial understanding of atonement. A subsequent rebuttal to the P.S.A. theory follows and demonstrates that the cross should not be understood within a sacrificial framework whereby Jesus is sacrificed to appease God's wrath; rather, the cross is God's self-giving of the Son into the hands of violent humanity in order to unmask humanity's violence by forgiving humanity's sin outside the logic of do ut des ("I give so that you will give").

Forum Bosnae, Cultural, Science, Society, Politics, 2007

The concept of scapegoating has widely used descriptive power with respect to reporting and understanding social violence. It is helpful, though, to review the limits of this concept with respect to explaining and redressing the causes of social violence. The disciplines of psychology, sociology, literary criticism, theology, and rhetoric each have particular versions of what scapegoating is as a social phenomenon. One reason the concept is confusing in scholarly discussions is because multiple versions converge. While the different versions are neither independent nor mutually exclusive, their mixing can result in confusion. It is worthwhile to distinguish these different versions, review their interconnectedness, and critique the flaws in the scholarly discussion of scapegoating, in particular, in René Girard’s work.

Comparative Sociology, 2023

The following article conducts two case studies into the premodern caste societies of medieval Bengal and early modern Japan. The Pirali Brahmins in Bengal and eta-hinin castes of Japan—both became scapegoats during these periods and were subject to popular disgust and stigma. The common aspects are that they were both close to the centres of power, and that these castes were feared in the ancient period for their supernatural prowess and they served as ritual scapegoats in pollution cleaning rituals. How they both became actual scapegoats from being ritual scapegoats is explored in this article using the framework popularized by the works of René Girard.

An anthropological paper, examining Rene Girards Theory.

The Heythrop Journal, 2018

The article connects the debates surrounding the problem of dirty hands with those regarding collective responsibility, mainly via René Girard's scapegoat mechanism and his view on mimetic violence. By virtue of the distinction between group intentions and individual pre-reflective intentions, the article will explore the notion that groups are morally responsible for acts accomplished with dirty hands, and whether individual participants in group actions are also responsible. Moreover, the article introduces a reflection on the collective shame of a larger community for what only a small group has done in its name. In a religious framework of thought, both the idea of a limited individual responsibility and that of collective guilt are valuable for furthering the dialogue on religious reconciliation. When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. 'I am innocent of this man's blood,' he said. 'It is your responsibility!' All the people answered, 'His blood is on us and on our children!' Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

René Girard speaks of the return of the religious as a “return of the sacred… in the form of violence.” This violence was inherent in the original “sacrificial system,” which deflected communal violence onto the victim. In this article, I argue that there is a double return of the sacred. With the collapse of the original sacrificial system, the sacred first reappears in the legal order. When this loses its binding claim, it reappears in the political order. Here, my claim will be that Carl Schmitt’s conception of the political is not simply structurally similar to Girard’s conception of the sacrificial system. It is actually a manifestation of this. In this political return of the religious, the religious and the political systems are conflated. What prevents us from seeing this is the self-concealment that is essential to the sacrificial act, a self-concealment that also characterizes its twofold return.

2011