Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is one of the world’s most well-respected entrepreneurs and business investors. He is the founder and CEO of PayPal, and was one of the earliest investors in Facebook. He is highly regarded as a thought leader on the topics of business, leadership, and innovation. He is also an outspoken disciple of the late […]
The Divinization of the Victim
In extreme cases of mimesis, which end in the sacrificial crisis, the chosen victim will often become an object of intense fascination and reverence in the wake of its death. Society, having purged itself suddenly and definitely of the great violence, now looks upon the satisfying victim with a kind of wonder – being both […]
Profane
Rene Girard believed that at the heart of all human culture was the distinction between the profane and the sacred. Generally, these terms describe the two different kinds of violence that result from mimetic desire. Profane violence is arbitrary, disordered, and chaotic. On the contrary, sacred violence, such as sacrifices, rituals, and religion, attempt to […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Evangelical Subversion of Myth – by René Girard
Girard begins this subversive exploration of the evangelical (Gospel) subversion of myth by quoting Sigmund Freud in his famous work, Totem and Taboo. Freud recognizes that long before he intuited the violent origins of human culture, the Gospels had already revealed them. “In the Christian doctrine,” he writes, “men were acknowledging in the most undisguised […]
Politics and Apocalypse – by Robert Hamerton-Kelly
Apocalypse. To most, the word signifies destruction, death, the end of the world, but the literal definition is “revelation” or “unveiling,” the basis from which renowned theologian René Girard builds his own view of Biblical apocalypse. Properly understood, Girard explains, Biblical apocalypse has nothing to do with a wrathful or vengeful God punishing his unworthy […]
Mimetic Theory and World Religions
by Wolfgang Palaver and Richard Schenk Those who anticipated the demise of religion and the advent of a peaceful, secularized global village have seen the last two decades confound their predictions. René Girard’s mimetic theory is key to understanding the new challenges posed by our world of resurgent violence and pluralistic cultures and traditions. Girard sought to […]
Mimesis and Science: Empirical Research on Imitation and the Mimetic Theory of Culture and Religion
by Scott R. Garrels This exciting compendium brings together, for the first time, some of the foremost scholars of René Girard’s mimetic theory of culture, with leading imitation researchers from the cognitive, developmental, and neuro-sciences. These chapters explore some of the major discoveries and developments concerning the foundational, yet previously overlooked, role of imitation in […]