Method in Mimetic Theory: René Girard and Christian Theology

Abstract

AbstractThis article elucidates the persistently nebulous methodological and disciplinary status of René Girard's mimetic theory, particularly vis‐à‐vis Christian theology. Whether “Girardian theology” strikes one as tautologous or oxymoronic, the proliferation of Girardian theological scholarship warrants a sustained analysis of Girard's methodological self‐understanding as it is both proclaimed and performed. Opening with a brief précis of mimetic theory's chief tenets and contributions to anthropology, I proceed to review Girard's corpus according to his preferred designation—social scientist—by adducing and coordinating his sporadic, evolving, and occasionally conflicting methodological manifestos and their textual enactment. After proffering several reasons for Girard's uneasy relationship with the broader social‐scientific community, I turn to theology to consider if there are any apt analogues to mimetic theory amongst Christian theology's many ancillae of ages past. While ultimately proposing four features demarcating mimetic theory as sui generis in this regard, I propose a heuristic characterization of its relationship to theology by utilizing the Aristotelian‐Thomistic category of “subalternate science.” Following this effort to situate mimetic theory more precisely between disciplines and in relation to theology, I offer a broader heuristic classification of mimetic theory intended to resolve or at least mitigate various tensions raised in the preceding analysis. To do so, I propose a suitably paradoxical twofold typology of Girardian mimetic theory as both a revealed scientific anthropology and a postmodern deconstructive Christian apologetic (or apologia for Christianity). Although preoccupation with methodological reflection can be practically debilitating, I hope to demonstrate its fittingness, relevance, and productivity in the inimitable case of René Girard.