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When Keith and I used to talk about Girard....back when EU was doing the book study on "I See Satan Fall Like Lightening" and on the list we were all very caught up in the implications of Girard's theory...past, present and future--Keith used to say that he didn't doubt the theory played out in terms of human behavior but that Girard was missing something. Those may not have been his exact words, but they convey the gist of his meaning. And what was missing was more of a spiritual thing....although there definitely are spiritual elements involved in Girard's theory. The Paraclete (holy spirit/spirit of truth) plays a huge role.
In an article with excerpts from Rene Girard's essay "Satan" the Girardian Lectionary points out that....
....... he (Jesus) is called the first Paraclete. After he is gone, a second Paraclete will continue his work.
Rene Girard, a Christian anthropologist / philosopher, argues that Paraclete ought to be translated as the Defense Attorney who is defending human beings against the assaults of Satan (the Prosecuting Attorney, the Accuser, the fomenter of violence). See Girard's book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, pages 189-90, for his argument.
And an excerpt from the Girardian interpretation of the Lectionary reading for John 14:15-21, Preaching Peace says:
Jesus commands positive mimesis, the mimesis of love.
How? By coming to us, each of us and all of us, as our model, our teacher, our guide. He does this in the sending of another just like himself, a counselor, a defense attorney, an advisor, a friend, a mentor. We not were not left bereft, nor forlorn and abandoned, we were given the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of Jesus. We hear his voice, he is our good shepherd. We ‘see’ him, we factor Jesus and the Spirit into our ‘theories’ (our seeing, our perspectives).
So there is definitely a pronounced spiritual aspect in Girard's teachings. Girard also claims that the Bible is the only holy writing that reveals mimetic rivalry and the resulting scapegoating mechanism at work. It illuminates and reveals more and more from Old Testament to New Testament...but with revelations and hints included from the earliest writings in Genesis right on through. There are Girardian aspects to the story of the fall in the Garden, Cain and Abel, Cain's founding of the first city etc. etc. etc. But sometimes there is a "two steps forward, one step back" progression.
But still......Girard is only a piece of the puzzle..a very big piece...but not the entirety of the puzzle. I was reminded of this in my early morning web findings (at about 6 am) in the preface to an unpublished series of articles from 1995 called "You Have It Coming: Good Punishment. The Legitimate Social Function of Punitive Behavior" by John Howard Yoder.
As the reader will soon see, much of the learning process to which these pages testify was sparked by the work of Rene Girard. I am grateful for Girard's most creative contribution to the field of study, and for his impetus to my own search, although I have had to conclude that the effort of some of his admirers to make of his analyses something like an einsteinian "general field theory," capable of explaining everything, has done a disservice to Girard by overreaching.(6) I have therefore felt free to liberate some of the sections of what follows from needing always to dialogue with the Girardians, as some of the paragraphs drafted earlier did.
And in the foot notes Yoder writes:
6. He (Girard) himself denies that claim. He disavows the intention to provide "a reductive notion" or "a rigid mold into which to fit the diversity of forms." Cf. Hamerton Kelly pp. 106-111. Girard uses his own tools very freely and confidently over a wide variety of themes, but he disavows the claim, which some of his devotees seem to assume, that they explain everything.
I will provide links below to the articles in this series. Very scholarly writing....but just in case anyone is interested....
CHAPTER I: DURKHEIM: IN GOD'S NAME OR IN OURS.
CHAPTER II: ANTISTHENES: THE CULTURAL IMPERATIVE OF LÈSE-MAJESTÉ.
CHAPTER III: AFTER ANTISTHENES:
CHAPTER IV: THE POWER OF INNOCENT SUFFERING
CHAPTER V: WITH AND BEYOND GIRARD
CHAPTER VII: THE OLD MAN MUST GO
CHAPTER IX: ENTERING A NEW AGE
CHAPTER X: FURTHER AGENDA IN THE GIRARDIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER XI: BACK TO THE REST OF SOCIOLOGY
CHAPTER XII: WHAT THEN SHOULD THE OLD MAN DO?
CHAPTER XIII: JESUS IN RELATION TO THE "SOCRATES" SECTION
You can find more of John Yoder's writings at his page on the Notre Dame website
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