Compassion Or Apocalypse?: A Comprehensible Guide to the Thought of Rene Girard - Softcover

Warren, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178279073X ISBN 13: 9781782790730

Publisher: Christian Alternative Books, 2013

Synopsis

Rene Girard's thesis that culture and religion arose from an original act of scapegoating murder gained international scholarly attention in the early seventies with his publication in France of Violence and the Sacred. A few years later, with Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Girard made it clear that his basic insights derived of all places from the Bible. Those insights are finally escaping the confines of academia, and coming to the awareness of a broader, theologically minded public. Many people are beginning to find in Girard answers to troublesome questions such as: Is God violent? Is there a necessary relationship between violence and religion? Why are there so many violent stories in the Bible? Why did Jesus have to die? Are we living in the end times? In clear, understandable prose, Compassion or Apocalypse shows how the Girardian perspective answers such questions, making Girard s mimetic theory and its application to biblical interpretation available to those who have little or no familiarity with Girard s work. To read the Bible from a Girardian point of view is to discover the radical message of God s nonviolent love in its historical wrestling with human violence, and its immanent confrontation with the gathering human apocalypse.

About this title

About the Author

James Warren holds an M.Div. degree, and works as a professional speaker. He presents ""Magic With A Message"" programs to schools across the United States, addressing issues of urgent relevance, especially bullying.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Compassion Or Apocalypse

A comprehensible guide to the thought of Ren Girard

By James Warren

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2012 James Warren
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78279-073-0

Contents

Foreword by Brian McLaren..................................................
1
Introduction...............................................................
5
Part I MIMESIS............................................................
Chapter 1 Mimesis and Desire..............................................
14
Chapter 2 Mimesis in Genesis 2 and 3......................................
39
Chapter 3 Scandal and Desire in the Gospels...............................
52
Part II THE SCAPEGOAT.....................................................
Chapter 4 Sacrifice, Founding Murder, and the Scapegoat Mechanism.........
78
Chapter 5 Mimesis, Rivalry, and Founding Murder In Genesis 4..............
131
Chapter 6 The Primitive Sacred and the Hebrew Scriptures in Travail.......
141
Chapter 7 Mythology.......................................................
186
Chapter 8 The Gospel Revelation of Myth and Murder........................
209
Part III COMPASSION OR APOCALYPSE.........................................
Chapter 9 The Gerasene Demoniac...........................................
242
Chapter 10 The Apostle Paul...............................................
256
Chapter 11 Paradigm for a New Humanity....................................
274
Chapter 12 Apocalypse and the Contemporary Situation......................
296
Endnotes...................................................................
354

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Mimesis and Desire

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?You desire something and do not have it; so you commit murder.And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage indisputes and conflicts. (James 4:1-2)

Oh, Hell! To choose love by another's eyes.Hermia (Midsummer Night's Dream)

* * *

Mimesis

Rubberbands used to be handy things to have around the houseand office, very practical little gadgets, and very cheap – until theday my six year old son came home from school wearing somearound his wrist. They weren't typical rubberbands, however, theywere "Silly Bandz" – strangely shaped, neon-colored, rubberband-likethings. When he took one off his wrist and threw it onto thetable it instantly resolved into the shape of a guitar. I found outsoon enough that Silly Bandz were not cheap. Nate wanted me tobuy him a pack of twenty-four that cost almost five dollars!Mercifully, we discovered that the local dollar store sold a varietythat cost only two dollars. (Why then did they call it a "dollar"store? Another of life's many conundrums.) Within a couple ofweeks, Nate had become the owner of several dozen Silly Bandz,which he wore proudly displayed in a thick conglomerate aroundhis wrist. At school the kids would show each other their bands andtrade them, while parents across America forked out millions ofdollars to satisfy their children's demands, and manufacturerslaughed, as they say, all the way to the bank.

It's an old story, isn't it, and one we all know well. But nobodyknows it better than the marketers, the promoters, and theadvertising agencies. They are the experts who can work the magicthat turns a rubberband into a national craze. Some readers mightremember the 1970's craze called Pet Rocks. Mere stones sold incardboard boxes cut with "breathing holes" so the "pet" couldbreath, these guys sold for almost four dollars back in 1975, andmade their creator, Gary Dahl, a millionaire. There is no need tolabor the point, because anyone living in our consumer culture isnot only familiar with it, but has no doubt been taken in by suchschemes many times over. None of us is immune. No matter howstupid or silly, sooner or later we all fall victim to the power ofinfluence and live to laugh about it, or cry over it, as the case maybe.

Although I said that no one knows this story better than theadvertisers and promoters who know how to package these itemsin ways that will sell, advertisers do not truly understand thenature of the force they manipulate with sometimes amazingefficacy. There is someone, however, who does understand the forceinvolved in such matters. His name is René Girard, and the force inquestion is what Girard calls mimetic desire. The term "mimeticdesire" means desire shaped by mimesis (which, it turns out, is theonly kind of desire there is). But what is mimesis? Before we get tothe issue of desire itself, we need to understand a bit aboutmimesis.

"Mimesis" means imitation (think mime). Everybody is aware tosome extent of the power of imitation in human life, and Girard isnot the first great thinker to make it a major theme in theunderstanding of human nature. Imitation is at the very heart ofAristotle's Poetics, for example, where Aristotle uses imitation as thedefinition of what is common to all art, and what makes us human.Nor is imitation for Aristotle mere superficial mimicry, as in thecopying of external shapes and sounds, but also involves thereproduction through art of human intentions and purposes, thestuff of which drama is made.

Another thinker who had much to say about imitation wasRudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education. Steiner was clearthat children learn by imitation: "At this age nothing isaccomplished through admonition; commands and prohibitionshave no effect at all. But the examples are most significant. Whatchildren see, what happens in their surroundings, they feel must beimitated.... Exhortations have no effect, but the way a person actsin the child's presence matters greatly. It is far more important torefrain from doing what the child is not permitted to do than toforbid the child to imitate it." I was able to observe this process inmy own child as I watched him picking up one habit after another,one interest after another, one mannerism after another – all byimitating elements in his environment. Everything that Nate is mostpassionate about, from Spiderman to karate to Taiko drum lessons,and everything that Nate has learned about how to be in the world,from tying shoelaces to brushing teeth to burping inappropriately(the way they do in the school cafeteria) to the desire for SillyBandz – everything has been by way of imitation.

Researcher Andrew Meltzoff of the University of Washington inSeattle did experiments in 1977 with infants only a few hours old.When Meltzoff stuck out his tongue, the babies would imitate thegesture and stick out theirs. One infant who did this was only ahalf-hour old and had not yet even seen its mother's face.Sometimes the imitation would happen immediately, but theinfants also had the capacity for delay, so that the gesture would beremembered and imitated only at a later time. It is because of thechild's incredible capacity to appropriate everything around herthrough imitation that Waldorf education is especially careful aboutprotecting the child from the influences of television, motionpictures, computer images, and other such stimuli. It is too easy forthe child to imitatively appropriate attitudes, behaviors, and imagesthat are beyond the child's developmental level, leading to variousdifficulties and alienation from immediate experience.

René Girard developed the idea of imitation in directionsundiscovered by any previous observers, and made it the lynchpinin a theory that goes far beyond child development. Girard calls it"mimesis" rather than imitation in order to avoid confusing his keyidea with mere mimicry. Like Aristotle, Girard sees that mimesisruns much deeper than the mere copying of externalities such asrepetition of sounds in language learning, or motor skills formastering a sport -- although this kind of imitation is certainlyubiquitous in human experience. Mimicry of the other's gestures,sounds, movements, and so on, come as naturally to us as tochimpanzees. But our imitative gifts far exceed the chimp's, and aswe begin to imitate, not just external gestures, but the other'sunspoken intentions and unuttered desires, our very sense of self – howwe experience ourselves and who we feel ourselves to be – comesto depend upon the "other." Girard saw that imitation ofexternals is a function of a much deeper imitation – the imitation ofdesire. When my son joins the Silly Bandz craze, he is not merelyimitating the behaviors of wearing, trading, displaying, and so on,but, far more profoundly, he is imitating the desire for Silly Bandzthat he senses in others; and at a deeper level still, he is imitatingthe desire to fit in, and the desire to stand out and be recognized(by having the coolest Silly Bandz). He sees that others desire thesethings, and then he wants them himself. Through mimesis, hedevelops the same desires, which leads him to pursue the sameobjects.

Mimetic Desire

The key to Girard's understanding of mimesis, therefore, andwhat gives his work its real depth and power, is his insight thathuman beings copy each other's desires. And we do this at levels ofincredible subtlety, since desire is not something people alwayswear on their sleeve. We have a wonderfully sensitive ability to"sniff out" the other's desire, reading his or her intentions andfeelings even before they become observable acts. This is becausewe are always quite anxious, if not downright desperate, to knowwhat others desire. We come into this world naked not only ofbody, but naked also of any sense as to what should be valued,what should be desired.

Now, we must carefully distinguish this kind of cultural desirefrom what we might call "appetites," which are biologically alreadyin place. We are programmed to seek and accept liquid when weare thirsty – we do not have to copy that appetite from anyone. Butit is not long before the appetite to slack thirst becomes mingledwith desire, which is for a particular kind of liquid, perhaps thatspecific cup of liquid which a child sees another enjoying. Perhapsthe liquid is red, and it was its redness which first caught the child'seye; but now that it has her attention, she sees the other childdrinking it and believes (rightly or wrongly) that the red liquid issomething the other child desires. Then she experiences anincredibly powerful urge to have some for herself, even if othertypes of liquid refreshment are readily available. This urge ismimetic. Once she drinks it, if the red liquid turns out to be a highlysugared fruit punch, biology might kick in as the sugar stimulatesfurther appetite without mimetic help. Even so, however, mimesiscan modify and even overrule biology, as, for example, when achild throws a fit in a grocery store when mommy attempts to buygeneric fruit punch that lacks the branding of the child's favoritecartoon character or superhero. Despite mommy's repeatedattempts to explain that this punch is just as sweet and sugary, thechild will have nothing to do with it. (No doubt if health foodmanufacturers made lucrative deals with Disney and George Lucas,children's food preferences – and their health – would bedramatically altered.)

A simple example often given to illustrate mimetic desire is thescenario every parent has witnessed (and had to deal with!)hundreds of times. A child is playing with a toy in a room full oftoys. Your child enters the room, begins looking around, perhapshandles a few objects that seem interesting to him; but, eventually,the toy the other child is enjoying comes to look more and moredesirable to your child. Sometimes gradually, sometimesimmediately, your child edges his way closer to the object, and youalready know what's coming. Without adult intervention there islikely to be trouble. You are going to have to intervene and talkwith your child about boundaries and respecting other people'sthings; and the other parent will have to talk with her child aboutsharing.

Of course, the scenario I just sketched doesn't alwaysmaterialize (thank God), because there may be other factors at workin the situation that steer the child into preferring a different toy.But even in this happy outcome, mimesis is probably at work. Thechild might defer her desire to possess the other kid's toy becauseshe imitates her parent's admonition (heard a hundred timesbefore) to wait until another child is finished playing with a toybefore grabbing for it; or she might spot a different toy, which sherecognizes as an even more powerful object of desire thanks to theinfluence of a television commercial, an older sibling, or a next-doorneighbor.

Mimesis, therefore, is not a mechanical process. Mimesis is notthe only force at work, since genetics and biology have their role toplay in motivation as well, and there is a mutually modifying effectbetween mimesis and biological urges and needs. But mimesis doesquite commonly distort and inhibit what would be the natural,biological response, leading people along even downrightdestructive paths. (An example that comes to mind would beascetic practices involving mortification of the flesh, learnedthrough imitation of the desires and practices of a religious order.)Various choices can be made about who and what to imitate, andGirard would affirm an element of freedom that allows us, to someextent at least, to choose what we will copy. Imitation of the desireof the other, however, is almost always an unconscious choice thatwe readily hide from ourselves. But more about that later.

Having brought up the issue of biology, some mention shouldbe made here of the recent discovery of mirror neurons. Severaldecades after Girard had developed his theory of mimesis, a groupof scientists experimenting with macaque monkeys in a laboratoryin Parma, Italy, made the discovery of the decade in neuroscience – mirrorneurons – thus providing what turns out to be a firm,experimental grounding for mimesis. When one performs anymotor activity, what are called motor neurons fire in the brain; butthese scientists made the amazing discovery that the brain alsocontains specialized neurons that fire when one merely observes anaction being performed. This seems to be the physiological sourceof empathy, allowing me to feel sad when I see you cry, or getangry in response to your anger. It is the reason video games andmovies can stimulate adrenaline rushes, as though I myself wereperforming the dangerous stunts I see on the screen. In all suchactivities, mirror neurons are firing away in response to myperception of the other's actions and feelings. Mirror neurons arenow being accepted as the physiological mechanism underlying ourcapacity to imitate.

Mimesis is a force rather like gravity. Jean-Michel Oughourlianpoints out that gravity's law of inverse proportion appliesanalogously to mimesis. Once two desires are attuned, the force ofattraction multiplies in power and it becomes easier to attract athird, in which case its power grows again, and so on as more"desirers" participate. I do not mean this as a strict mathematicalfunction, only as a suggestive analogy; but it does seem to be thecase that mimetic attraction grows with the size of a crowd.Eventually we have the phenomenon of a "mimetic wave" – the so-calledherd mentality characteristic of mobs, which at its peakexercises upon individuals an almost irresistible fascination. Themore desires are focused upon a particular object, the moreirresistibly desirable the object appears to everyone. The rises andplunges of the stock market are examples of mimetic waves:investors follow the numbers, which represent the desires of othersfor certain stocks. The stock market demonstrates the "snowballeffect" of mimesis when it becomes a large scale groupphenomenon, growing in power and seductiveness in proportion tothe number of participating traders.

I often perform for schools, doing assembly programs thataddress the issue of bullying, and I use magic as a means ofcommunicating the concepts in an entertaining way. In this setting Ihave often noticed the power of mimetic waves. Once I was doing ashow for seven hundred middle school students in a largeauditorium. I bring students up to the stage as helpers for variousroutines, and with middle school kids this is very easy to do sincethey generally love to assist the magician. Usually I ask forvolunteers, but sometimes I simply grab someone's hand, yankthem out of their seat, and say "thanks for volunteering!" It gets alaugh. On this occasion, however, it turned out that the girl I triedto get to volunteer was petrified of appearing on stage before herclassmates, and she balked. I attempted to cajole her out of her seat,because I already knew what was likely to happen if she persistedin her stubborn refusal to volunteer. And I was right. When I triedto get the girl sitting next to her to volunteer, she exhibited exactlythe same behavior as the first girl: facial expression, body language,and verbal expletives were all the same. It was as though she were aphotocopy of the first girl.

Now I knew I was in trouble, because I had seen this happenbefore, and I know mimetic theory. Once the second girl chose toimitate the first girl's desire not to participate, the "gravitational"effect of mimesis set in: with two girls exhibiting the samedesire/behavior, it was almost a certain bet that the next studentwould participate in the same imitation. Desire to "resist-the-magician"spread almost palpably like a wave throughout theauditorium, even though this age group is usually quite extrovertedand enthusiastic in their desire to participate. I finally had toaddress the entire audience, asking for someone – anyone! – to raisehis or her hand to volunteer – and only two people out of sevenhundred went against the "wave" and raised their hands! This ishow powerfully and quickly mimesis can control collective groupbehavior.

We will examine the Gospels in detail later, but I might mentionhere, in connection with mimetic waves, how the Gospels portraythe actions of the "crowd" in relation to Jesus. News about Jesusspread contagiously throughout Judea, so that Jesus became acelebrity by word-of-mouth. When he entered Jerusalem on PalmSunday, riding on a donkey, the crowds adored him and welcomedhim as a king; but later those same crowds turned against him,shouting for his crucifixion. Both movements were mimetic waves.The reason it was so easy for the crowd to turn against Jesus (thefamous "fickleness" of the crowd) is that the object of a crowd'sdesire can in principle be anything, because the crowd doesn'tdesire the object for its own sake; it looks desirable simply becauseeverybody else is desiring it. Thus, like the child's toy in theplayroom, the crowd will quickly discard its plaything when themimetic fad changes – sometimes for the most trivial of reasons.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Compassion Or Apocalypse by James Warren. Copyright © 2012 by James Warren. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
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Edition details

• Publisher: Christian Alternative Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178279073X
• ISBN 13: 9781782790730
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 380