Mimesis and Atonement René Girard and the Doctrine of Salvation

by Kirwan, Michael; Hidden, Sheelah Treflé; Fleming, Chris; Hodge, Joel; Cowdell, Scott

• ISBN13: 9781501325427
• ISBN10: 1501325426
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-12-15
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

How are we to best understand the statement of faith that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again 'for us and for salvation?' This question has animated Christian thought for two millennia: it has also bitterly divided believers, not least in Reformation and post-Reformation disputes about atonement, justification, sanctification and sacrifice. René Girard's Violence and the Sacred (1972) made startling connections between religion, violence and culture. His work has enlivened the theological and philosophical debate once again, especially the question of whether and how we are to understand Christ's death as a 'sacrifice'. Mimesis and Atonement brings together philosophers from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox, and Jewish backgrounds to examine the continued significance of Girard's work. They do so in the light of new developments, such as the controversial 'new scholarship' on Paul.

Author Biography

Sheelah Treflé Hidden is Research Associate in the Heythrop Institute: Religion and Society at the University of London, UK. She is the editor of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Mystical Perspectives on the Love of God (2014).

Michael Kirwan SJ is Director of the Heythrop Institute: Religion and Science at the University of London, UK.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Rt. Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams (Master, Magdalene College, The University of Cambridge, UK)

1. Traversing Hostility: the sine qua non of any Christian Talk about Atonement
James Alison (Imitatio Foundation)
2. Orthodox Debates in the Twentieth Century on the Question of Atonement
Antoine Arjakovsky (Collège des Bernardins, Paris, France)
3. Jewish Atonement and the Book of Jonah: From Sacrifice to Non-Violence
Vanessa J. Avery (Webster University, USA)
4. Paul and Girard Agonistes: Against Theological Violence
Anthony Bartlett (Syracuse University, USA)
5. Wright, Wrong and Wrath; Apocalypse in Paul and in Girard
Steve Finamore (Bristol Baptist College, UK)
6. “Strategies of Grace”: Mimesis as Conversion in Girard and in Theology
Nichael Kirwan SJ (Heythrop Institute, University of London, UK)
7. Violence Unveiled: Understanding Christianity and Politics in Northern Ireland after Rene Girard's Re-reading of Atonement
Duncan Morrow (University of Ulster, UK)
8. Sacrifice and Atonement; Strengthening the Trinitarian Aspects of Mimetic Theory
Arpad Szakolczai (University College, Cork, Ireland)
9. Salvation through Forgiveness or through the Cross? Raymund Schwager's Dramatic Solution to a False Alternative
Nikolaus Wandinger (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

Bibliography
Index