Can We Survive Our Origins?: Readings in René Girard’s Theory of Violence and the Sacred.

389 Pages·2015·1.44 MB·English

by  Pierpaolo Antonello

Can We Survive
Our Origins?
Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture
SERIES EDITOR
William A. Johnsen
Th e Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture Series examines issues related to the nexus of
violence and religion in the genesis and maintenance of culture. It furthers the agenda of the
Colloquium on Violence and Religion, an international association that draws inspiration
from René Girard’s mimetic hypothesis on the relationship between violence and religion,
elaborated in a stunning series of books he has written over the last forty years. Readers
interested in this area of research can also look to the association’s journal, Contagion: Journal
of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture.
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Esra Genc Arvas
ADVISORY BOARD
René Girard, Stanford University Raymund Schwager†, University of Innsbruck
Andrew McKenna, Loyola University of Chicago James Williams, Syracuse University
EDITORIAL BOARD
Rebecca Adams, Independent Scholar Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles
Jeremiah L. Alberg, International Christian Sandor Goodhart, Purdue University
University, Tokyo, Japan Robert Hamerton-Kelly†, Stanford University
Mark Anspach, École Polytechnique, Paris Hans Jensen, Aarhus University, Denmark
Pierpaolo Antonello, University of Cambridge Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California,
Ann Astell, University of Notre Dame Santa Barbara
Cesáreo Bandera, University of North Carolina Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Shaw University
Maria Stella Barberi, Università di Messina Michael Kirwan, SJ, Heythrop College, University
Alexei Bodrov, St. Andrew’s Biblical Th eological of London
Institute, Moscow Paisley Livingston, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
João Cezar de Castro Rocha, Universidade do Charles Mabee, Ecumenical Th eological Seminary,
Estado do Rio de Janeiro Detroit
Benoît Chantre, L’association Recherches Józef Niewiadomski, Universität Innsbruck
Mimétiques Wolfgang Palaver, Universität Innsbruck
Diana Culbertson, Kent State University Martha Reineke, University of Northern Iowa
Paul Dumouchel, Ritsumeikan University Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Stanford University, École Th ee Smith, Emory University
Polytechnique Mark Wallace, Swarthmore College
Giuseppe Fornari, Università degli studi di Bergamo Eugene Webb, University of Washington
Can We Survive
Our Origins?
READINGS IN RENÉ GIRARD’S THEORY
OF VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED
Edited by Pierpaolo Antonello
and Paul Gifford
Michigan State University Press · East Lansing
Copyright © 2015 by Michigan State University
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z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
pMichigan State University Press
East Lansing, Michigan 48823-5245
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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Book design and composition by Charlie Sharp, Sharp Des!gns, Lansing, Michigan
Original front cover art and cover design by David Drummond, Salamander Design,
www.salamanderhill.com. Backcover image of pillars at the temple of Göbekli Tepe
(Anatolia, Turkey) is by Vincent J. Musi, National Geographic Creative and is used with
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Visit Michigan State University Press at www.msupress.org
Th is book is dedicated to
the memory of Bob Hamerton-Kelly,
whose energy, enthusiasm and inspiration
were instrumental to the realization
of our project.
•

Contents
xi Foreword, Rowan Williams
xvii Acknowledgments
xix Introduction

part one. the programming of origins:
sacred violence and its legacy
3 A Covenant among Beasts: Human and Chimpanzee Violence
in Evolutionary Perspective, Paul Dumouchel
25 Liminal Crises: Th e Origins of Cultural Order, the Default
Mechanisms of Survival, and the Pedagogy of the Sacrifi cial
Victim, Pierpaolo Antonello
49 Victims, Sacred Violence, and Reconciliation: A Darwinian-
Girardian Reading of Human Peril and Human Possibility,
Harald Wydra
71 Empire of Sacrifi ce: Violence and the Sacred in American Culture,
Jon Pahl and James Wellman
part two. rebooting evolutionary survival:
is christianity crucial?
97 From Closed Societies to the Open Society: Parochial Altruism
and Christian Universalism, Wolfgang Palaver
115 Girard, the Gospels, and the Symmetrical Inversion of the
Founding Murder, Paul Giff ord
143 Survival and Salvation: A Girardian Reading of Christian Hope
in Evolutionary Perspective, Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly
part three. violent reciprocities and peace-making
in the contemporary world
169 Northern Ireland: Breaking the Inheritance of Confl ict and
Violence, Duncan Morrow
191 Communities of Contrast: Modeling Reconciliation in Northern
Ireland, Derick Wilson
215 Responses to Morrow and Wilson
215 Girardian Refl ections on Israel and Palestine, Mel Konner
223 South Africa: Positive Mimesis and the Turn toward Peace,
Leon Marincowitz
233 Peace-Making in Practice and Th eory: An Encounter with
René Girard, Scott Atran
part four. between progress and abyss: our modernity
253 Nuclear Apocalypse: Th e Balance of Terror and Girardian
“Misrecognition,” Jean-Pierre Dupuy
267 Responses to Jean-Pierre Dupuy
267 Th e “Intermediary” Case, Margo Boenig-Liptsin
273 Misrecognition of “Misrecognition,” Paul Dumouchel
279 Survival without Salvation? Paul Giff ord
287 Girard, Climate Change, and Apocalypse, Michael Northcott
311 A New Heaven and a New Earth: Apocalypticism and Its
Alternatives, Michael Kirwan
331 About the Authors
337 Index