Mimetic Theory – A Compendium of Videos
This is a complete list of every pedagogic video on mimetic theory and René Girard. This list will be updated weekly as new content arises. “When scandals proliferate, human beings become so obsessed with their rivals that they lose sight of the objects for which they compete and begin to focus angrily on one another.” Ameer Rosic – What Is Mimetic Theory – A Short Basic Introduction Jess Marshall – Mimetic Theory and Scapegoats: A Basic Guide Hoover Institution – Insights with Rene Girard Commons Church – An Introduction to Rene Girard: Mimetic Desire John Crowder – Mimetic Theory: The Jesus Trip Then & Now – Rene Girard: An Introduction Imitatio – Rene Girard Explains Mimetic Desire Les Bridgeman – Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory in Under 5 Minutes Imitatio – Peter Thiel on Rene Girard Amor Sciendi – Andy Warhol and the Mimetic Theory of Art | AmorSciendi Craig Stewart – Mimetic Theory – Section One – Part 1 ( Numerous Episodes) Redeeming God – A Theory of Everything – Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory The Raven Foundation – Why Should Anyone Care About Mimetic Theory The Raven Foundation – Mimetic Theory 101 ( Numerous Sessions ) Craig Stewart – Mimetic Theory Podcast ( Numerous Sessions ) Amy Crist – Mimetic Theory PPT New Then & Now – CoronaVirus and Scapegoats: Rene Girard Imitatio08 – Imitatio Conf 2008: Rene Girard Genesis of Mimetic Theory 1 Peter Rollins – The Fundamentalists | Mimetic Desire and Violence Intellectual Deep Web – René Girard – Mimetic Desire in the Prehistorical Period Intellectual Deep Web – René Girard – Mimetic Desire in Shakespeare Ulster Law School, University of Ulster – Rene Girard’s mimetic theory: an ‘anti-political theology’? – Dr Michael Kirwan Michael Hardin – Brian McLaren and Michael Hardin teaching on René Girard and Mimetic Theory Part 1 ( Numerous Parts ) Morgan Street Media – David Gornoski Explains The Concept of Mimetic Theory Greatstephen3 – René Girard CBC interview part 1 of 5 ( Numerous Parts ) Wondering Pilgrim – Mimetic Theory with David Gornoski The Raven Foundation – Christianity 21 Talk: Mimetic Theory and the Nonviolent God COV & R – The Patho-logies of Exclusion: Mimetic Theory, Crowd Psychology, (New) Fascism Jonathan Pageau – René Girard: Desire and Sacrifice – with Craig Stewart Psych Reviews – The Origin of Envy & Narcissism – René Girard Libertarian Christian Institute – Ep 34: Mimetic Theory UFVedu – Refresher on Mimetic Theory The Raven Foundation – The RavenCast: Islam, Nonviolence, and Mimetic Theory 정일권 박사 TV – Mimetic Theory of René Girard, Buddhist Studies and God-debate The Raven Foundation – Dr. Stephen McKenna: Political Rhetoric and Mimetic Theory The James Fox Higgins Show – MIMESIS – The Unifying Theory Exposed in the Bible w/ David Gornoski The Raven Foundation – Chat with Jim Warren on Magic, Mimetic Theory, and “Compassion or Apocalypse” Intellectual Deep Web – Rene Girard – Violence & Religion IIT Kanpur July 2018 – Lecture 04-Literature & Mimesis Aristotle Did You Know Podcast – Episode 61: David Gornoski On Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory David Gornoski – Michael Shermer, David Gornoski on Heavens on Earth, Mimetic Theory The Raven Foundation – Who Do You Follow? – Mimetic Theory, Politics, and Taylor Swift Intellectual Deep Web – René Girard – The Mimetic View of the Apocalypse Imitatio08 – Imitatio Conference 2008: Rene Girard on Mimetic Theory COV & R – The Patho-logies of Exclusion: Mimetic Theory, Crowd Psychology, (New) Fascism with Nidesh Lawtoo COV & R – Jack Miles – Is the Qur’an the Word of God? Mimetic Theory and the Anxiety of Scriptural Influence New Economic Thinking – Intersubjectivity: Rene Girard’s Vision of Mimetic Desire and Economic Dynamics – INET Hong Kong The Raven Foundation – Mimetic Theory and Physician Assisted Suicide Cannabis Heals Me – Ep. 83 – David Gornoski – Mimetic Theory & Scapegoating Drug Users The Raven Foundation – Battling from the Beginning Mimetic Theory Columbus Day and the War in Afghanistan David Gornoski – Zak Slayback on his Conversion to Christian Faith, Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory, Civil Unrest Libertarian Christian Institute – Ep 175: COVID, Riots, and Mimetic Theory, with Michael Hardin The Raven Foundation – Mimetic Insights with Dr. Chris Haw Bishop Robert Barron – Bishop Barron on René Girard Theology and Peace Videos Paul Nuechterlein – Advanced Mimetic Theory The Raven Foundation – The RavenCast: Mimetic Theory, Post-Truth, and Donald Trump’s Cabinet Theology and Peace Videos – Advanced Mimetic Theory Panel Responses The Raven Foundation – Richard Beck on Mimetic Theory, Christus Victor, and the Satan The Raven Foundation – Teaching Nonviolent Atonement: Rev Paul Nuechterlein on Mimetic Theory, Religion, and Secularism The Raven Foundation – RavenCast Episode 2 with Suzanne Ross: Mimetic Theory, Montessori, and Parenting VSauce2 – The Invention of Blame (Scapegoat Mechanism) InkSoft – How The Mimetic Desire Theory Can Help You Optimize Your Marketing David Gornoski – David Gornoski Speech “Our Failing Mimetic Culture” – Mises Institute Orlando Gregory Sadler – Plato’s Republic book 10 | Ideas, Things, Imitations, and their Makers | Philosophy Core Concepts Imitatio08 – Imitatio Conference 2008: Robert Hamerton-Kelly on Mimetics David Gornoski – Jordan Hall, David Gornoski on Rene Girard, Gospel Technology vs Myth Libritarian Christian Institution – Ep 47: 2017 Through a Mimetic Lens with David Gornoski Imitatio Video – René Girard / Charles Darwin Carneades.org – What is Mimesis? (Aristotle’s Poetics) Always Loved – Movements of Desire – Mimesis Church Next – Violence, Myth, and Scripture with Suzanne Ross Peter Rollins – Mimetic Desire and Violence Lumen Christi Institute – Sacred Violence: The Legacy of René Girard Canon Press – Rene Girard, the Atonement, and Christians Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Continuing Education – Principle and Practice: René Girard, Politics, Religion, and Violence The Raven Foundation – RE: Voice of Moderation: Mimetic Theory, Science, and the Bible
Dan Wang
Dan Wang is an interesting cat. He is the author of this excellent piece called “College As An Incubator of Girardian Terror,” detailing the way that mimetic rivalry heats up in the environment of a college campus. Dan is a graduate of the University of Rochester, after nearly getting kicked out and negotiating his way back in. He now works for Gavekal Dragonomics, a global macro research firm based in Hong Kong and Beijing. The books that he likes the best is an excellent account. His analysis of the hit show Big Little Lies shows his acute insight into mimetic theory: “I haven’t watched much TV recently, but the new show I’ve liked best is *Big Little Lies* on HBO. Rich suburban moms, with desires mediated by their children, are incited towards violence against each other in gorgeous Monterey, California. Who can resist? The parents have drawn their battle lines by the first episode. The Girardian themes get heavier and heavier throughout the series, until the astonishing finale, which culminates in violent murder. Mimetic contagion races through the group of mothers, who battle over progressively higher stakes, until the show ends with communal violence against a mysterious outsider, the death of whom unites the community in frolicking harmony. The murder takes place during a masquerade-like public performance, over flames, alcohol, and music; the perpetrators each have a hand in violence; scenes of a beating are interspersed with the breaking of Pacific waves on rocks in all directions. That murder unites feuding groups under a lie, and previously lingering questions are papered over, without resolution nor need of one.” Check out Dan Wang
Obituary Tribute to René Girard – Stanford News Service
Cynthia Haven, author of Evolution of Desire, a biography of René Girard, begins this obituary tribute after the 2005 death of the founder of mimetic theory with these words: “René Girard was one of the leading thinkers of our era – a provocative sage who bypassed prevailing orthodoxies and “isms” to offer a bold, sweeping vision of human nature, human history and human destiny.” It begins a beautifully written ode to one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. By the time Girard died at his home in Stanford on Nov. 4, 2005–just a short time before the terrorist attacks in Paris—he had been inducted as one of 40 immortals into the Académie Française and dubbed by his colleague Michael Serres, a fellow inductee, the “new Darwin of the social sciences.” Girard, always witty despite the seriousness of his thinking, remarked during his induction ceremony into the Académie how funny it was to be called an immortal when, looking around at all of the deceased former members and current elderly members, it was clear that of all the things you could say about members of the Académie, immortal should not be one of them! Click here to read Cynthia Haven’s beautiful piece: René Girard’s Obituary Tribute
René Girard’s CBC interview – David Cayley
Since the beginning of time, humanity has been in constant conflict due to the mimetic nature of desire. In this televised interview, IDEAS producer David Cayley speaks with René Girard about the historical and biblical aspects of mimetic theory, scapegoating, and violence, from Cain and Abel through examples from contemporary literature. With the revelation of mimetic desire and its consequences, Girard hopes to protect humanity from the escalation of violence that is inevitable if the mimetic conflict is not recognized and ultimately renounced. Watch David Cayley’s incredible Interview with René Girard
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary – Paul Nuechterlein
Paul Nuechterlein, a well-known theologian, started Girardian Reflections with a passion for spreading a message of justice and peace. In a world filled with hostility, Nuechterlein dives into how desire can play a major roll in this continuous battle. With René Girard’s Mimetic Theory at the forefront of his analysis, Nuechterlein conducts seminars in Discipleship and Mimetic Theory to adequately train his audience on the “politics of justice.” Nuechterlein states that this website is his way of giving an “anthropological perspective” into human violence and how Christians should respond. Nuechterlein encourages his readers to look at Sunday scripture with this perspective to fully understand it not only in a theological sense but also in an anthropological one. Visit Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
Reading of Cervantes’ Don Quixote – González Echevarría
An interpretation of the great novel Don Quixote through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory. In mimetic theory, human love is always mediated by a third person who also works as a motivator. In the section of the famous novel that Echevarria interprets, Don Quixote interrupts a “reading” of stories by young people that was going to culminate in marriage. The interruption of the reading allows the court-like scene of reconciliations among the various couples and all restitutions which were made, as a reaffirmation of new social forms. Cervantes’ point is that mental life is made up of levels that mirror and distort each other. Watch the professor’s interpretation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote
The Last Superstition – Roberto Calasso
What is the last superstition in human culture? Author, editor, literary critic, and man of letters Roberto Calasso muses….“man has a surplus of energy which he has to dispose of. That surplus is simply life. There is no life without a surplus. Whatever one does with that surplus, that decides the shape of a culture, of life, of a mind. There were certain cultures that decided they had to offer it in some way. It is not clear to whom, why, and how, but that was the idea. There are other cultures, like ours, where all this is considered entirely useless and obsolete. In the secular world, sacrifice shouldn’t have any meaning at all. At the same time, you realize that it does, because the word has remained very much in use. In discussions of the economy, analysts speak all the time of sacrifices, without realizing what is inside the word. Even in psychological terms, sacrifice is the most usual word. It is considered illegal—for instance, if one celebrated a sacrificial ritual in the middle of London or New York, he would do something illegal, he would be put in jail. Sacrifice is connected to destruction—that is an important thing and the most mysterious one. Why, in order to offer something, you must destroy it. Watch The Last Superstition
Scapegoating at Çatalhöyük – René Girard
In 2008, René Girard gave a keynote lecture at the Colloquium on Violence and Religion about how the dynamics of mimetic desire were playing out thousands of years ago. With a focus on what he called “Scapegoating at Çatalhöyük”, he analyzes the rituals that are contained in humanity’s earliest forms of artwork. Çatalhöyük was a large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC. Watch Scapegoating at Çatalhöyük
Things Hidden Since The Foundation of the World: Book Launch
Why is human violence the much-neglected key to understanding human emergence and development? How does it differ from animal violence? How was it controlled by the victimary or scapegoat mechanism? How does this stabilize human communities and lead to the creation of natural or archaic religion (‘the sacred’); and then to the development of our culture as a whole? Watch Things Hidden Since The Foundation of the World: Book Launch
Imitation, Mirror Neurons, and Mimetic Desire: Convergence Between the Mimetic Theory of René Girard and Empirical Research on Imitation – by Scott Garrels
Scott Garrels, of Fuller Theological Seminary in California, says this: “Psychological mimesis is the tendency of human beings to imitate the gestures, behaviors, and intentions of other persons; it is the very cornerstone upon which the entire work of René Girard is constructed. From this foundation, Girard has made a number of bold claims about human nature and the resulting origin and structure of human culture and religion. The scope of Girard’s work is immense and has far-reaching implications across such diverse disciplines as anthropology, primitive religion, psychology, literary analysis, theology, and philosophy. Check out Imitation, Mirror Neurons, and Mimetic Desire