René Girard and Secular Modernity: Christ, Culture, and Crisis

by Scott Cowdell

In René Girard and Secular Christ, Culture, and Crisis , Scott Cowdell provides the first systematic interpretation of René Girard’s controversial approach to secular modernity. Cowdell identifies the scope, development, and implications of Girard’s thought, the centrality of Christ in Girard's thinking, and, in particular, Girard's distinctive take on the uniqueness and finality of Christ in terms of his impact on Western culture. In Girard’s singular vision, according to Cowdell, secular modernity has emerged thanks to the Bible’s exposure of the cathartic violence that is at the root of religious prohibitions, myths, and rituals. In the literature, the psychology, and most recently the military history of modernity, Girard discerns a consistent slide into an apocalypse that challenges modern ideas of romanticism, individualism, and progressivism. In the first three chapters, Cowdell examines the three elements of Girard’s basic intellectual vision (mimesis, sacrifice, biblical hermeneutics) and brings this vision to a constructive interpretation of “secularization” and “modernity,” as these terms are understood in the broadest sense today. Chapter 4 focuses on modern institutions, chiefly the nation state and the market, that function to restrain the outbreak of violence. And finally, Cowdell discusses the apocalyptic dimension of Girard's theory in relation to modern warfare and terrorism. Here, Cowdell engages with the most recent writings of Girard (particularly his Battling to the End ) and applies them to further conversations in cultural theology, political science, and philosophy. Cowdell takes up and extends Girard’s own warning concerning an alternative to a future “What sort of conversion must humans undergo, before it is too late?”

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Nonfiction

259 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2013

Reviews

[Andrew Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

René Girard's take on the role of Christianity in modern secularism has been commented on in many books discussing Girard's ideas as well they should since the dismantling of the primitive sacred through the Gospel's revealing the truth of sacred violence is a major element in his thought. This book, however, is the most thorough that I know of in evaluating modern so-called secular culture through Girard's thinking. As with most books on Girard, Cowdell introduces and explains the three pillars of Girard: mimetic desire, unveiling sacred violence & the Gospel as the primary unveiler of the first two. However, throughout these explications, the effect of these ideas on modernity is noted time and again. The last two chapters are more focused on the present time, noting how the breakdown of hierarchy has loosened mimetic rivalry to epidemic proportions. Cowdell describes the institutions that have been serving as a "katechon" in modern times but with diminishing success. ("Kathechon" is a New Testament word for imposed restraint.)Government and law have served as such with ambiguity as both act violently in many cases with capital punishment, for example, being a modern mode of sacred violence. Moreover, as Thomas Cavanaugh has argued, states create a sacred aura and a false transcendence that make the ersatz sacred institutions. Moreover, the state is abdicating its restraining power to the capitalist market more and more. The capitalist market has also served as a "katechon" through trying to create plenitude so that there are more haves than have nots who would be envious. The built-in mimetic rivalry of the capitalist system makes this unstable and this instability is increasing as mimetic issues intensify to the point where the powerful are creating scarcity for more and more people. Cowdell also examines the apocalyptic violence that results from our situation with particular reference to Girard's book "Battling to the End." This is the most constructive and probing examination of this troubling work that I have seen. It is unflinching in facing the perils of our time but refuses to relinquish all hope. The reason for this is that Cowdell in grounded in the Gospel and Christian practice. He brings both knowledge and experience of contemplative Christianity into his assessment of modernity and explores how it can give us the tools for living in the present time without being torn apart by mimetic strife. His references to the dark night of the soul in St. John of the Cross are very suggestive for the sense of unmooring that the Gospel causes by weaning us from the fellowship of victimization to a vision of opening our hearts to the forgiving victim. A very important book for out time.