The Fall of Satan, Rational Psychology, and the Division of Consciousness: A Girardian Thought Experiment

doi:10.35765/forphil.2018.2302.17

Abstract

This paper proposes a revision of Girard’s interpretation of Satan, along traditional theological lines. Appreciating the essential correctness of the Girardian characterization of mimēsis, it is an argument, contra Girard, that (1) Satan cannot be reduced to a mimetic process but is a hypostatic spiritual reality and, following from this, that (2) the origins of mimetic rivalry go back before the emergence of humankind and provide a model for human rivalry. Employing concepts drawn from Husserlian phenomenological psychology, Thomist theology, and psychoanalysis, it hypothesizes Satan’s psychological state, prior to his fall, as metastable anxiety and trauma and his state, afterwards, as a narcissistic, malicious, self-induced pathology in order to explain Satan’s impossible rivalry with God, a rivalry that precedes hominization and has always endangered human existence.

Highlights

In this paper I will argue that the roots of mimetic rivalry antedate the fall of the primordial parents
In keeping with classic Roman Catholic Theology, I will propose an alternative to the allegorizing interpretation of Girard in I Saw Satan Fall, one that takes seriously the possibility that the fall of Satan is a narrative about a really existing spiritual being
It is my purpose to show that traditional accounts of Satan’s evil choice—the choice of an incomparably powerful and brilliant creature—can be made more intelligible on the basis of Girardian mimetic theory, the Husserlian understanding of intentionality, and some elements drawn from psychoanalytic theory

Summary

Introduction

In this paper I will argue that the roots of mimetic rivalry antedate the fall of the primordial parents. Appreciating the way in which Girard introduces the mimetic into the workings of the satanic, I suggest that his approach is not the only possible one (or even the most theologically fundamental one).

Results

Conclusion