Girard's mimetic theory and the image of God in man: A preliminary theological perspecitve of human mimesis

Abstract

This study seeks to establish a link between Girard's mimetic anthropology and the Biblical notion that man is created in the image and likeness of God. While Girard developed deliberately an anthropology without reference to theology, this study - in an attempt to show that human mimesis makes also sense theologically - has taken creation theology as its starting point. By reviewing three Girardian authors, Alison, Bailie and Schwager, the thesis that mimesis belongs to man as a creature before God and is therefore inseparable from his response to God and from man's representational role in creation was further developed. To test it, the Genesis Prologue, contemporary trinitarian discourse and the life of Jesus were probed for the presence of mimetic patterns. The findings showed that the phenomenon of human mimesis seems to be profoundly linked to the purposes of God in creation and redemption. The Biblical dictum of man's creation in God's image means that humanity was conceived in and created as the earthly counterpart of trinitarian love. Therefore, the conclusion that the origin of human mimesis must ultimately be traced to the Trinity itself in whose image human existence has its being is seen as reasonable. At the same time, human mimesis in its present condition, represents at best a structure of hope for man's inner core of imitative desire fixated in acquisitive mode may be converted to one that imitates Christ's sacrificial love so that in the final analysis, human mimesis exists for doxological reasons.