Resources: René Girard
PPT from 10/28/2010 Lecture
Girard_Lecture.ppt: Presented here is the PowerPoint Presentation used for the lecture given at Siena Heights University on October 28, 2010.
- web sites
- Colloquium On Violence & Religion (COV&R)
An excellent resource for things Mimetic. COV&R holds an annual conference where the implications of mimesis are discussed. It also publishes the journal Contagion which features articles written from the mimetic perspective. - The Cornerstone Forum
Gil Bailie has worked extensively with René Girard and has been a proponent of his work for years. I highly recommend Gil's book Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroad in which he explains Girard's mimetic theory and its implications in today's world. - girardianlectionary.net
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary: Understanding the Bible Anew Through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard. This web site provides links to several authors, such as James Alison, Michael Hardin (The Jesus Driven Life), and Raymond Schwager. Speaking of Raymond Schwager, his book Must There Be Scapegoats: Violence and Redemption in the Bible" is a "must read". - Chronicles of Love and Resentment
Since the mid-1990's Eric Gans, professor of French Literature at UCLA, has been the author of the Chronicles and the editor of Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology". Gans studied directly under René Girard and has developed an interesting version of mimetic theory based on the "deferral of violence through represenation". - mimetictheory.net
"Sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, the Metanexus Institute, and the Travis Research Institute of Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, this two year project brings together some of the world’s most prominent scientists, philosophers, and religious scholars in an attempt to explore current theories of human imitation and their converging implications for contemporary psychosocial, religious, and scientific thought."
Among the participants are René Girard and Jean-Michel Oughourlian M.D., Ph.D.. Dr. Oughourlian co-authored Things Hiddens Since the Foundation of the World with René Girard. He has also written The Genesis of Desire. Dr. Oughourlian is professor of clinical psychopathology at the University of Paris and chief of psychiatry at the American Hospital in Paris. - "Imitation, Mirror Neurons, And Mimetic Desire: Convergence Between The Mimetic Theory Of René Girard And Empirical Research On Imitation" by Scott R. Garrels (Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, California)
- Interview with René Girard
The Journal of Generative Anthropology interviewed René Girard in its June 1996 edition (Volume 2, no.1). This interview provides a very concise look into Girard's mature theory of mimesis and culture as well as the similarity and differences between his approach to the genesis of culture and that of Eric Gans. - Imitatio—Integrating the Human Sciences
From the web site: "Mimetic or Imitative Theory is an explanation of human behavior and human culture. Human beings imitate each other in everything, including desire. As a result they choose the same objects and compete for them. Paradoxically, therefore, the same imitative force as brings people together, pulls them apart. The mimetic theory claims that this misunderstood phenomenon is the most important cause of human violence, and that vengeance is the most important form it takes."
- About R Stead...
- R Stead discovered the works of René Girard in the early 1990's. He has read all of the major works of Girard and has attended several lectures and seminars offered by Gil Bailie. For several years he was the webmaster for Gil Bailie when Gil ran The Florilegia Institute—the precursor to his most recent endeavor—The Cornerstone Forum. Like René Girard, R Stead is not a theologian nor a professionally trained philosophy. His degrees are in music (BM—Wayne State University) and education (MA—University of Michigan). He is a live-long student, seeker of truth, and disciple of Christ.