Philosophy's Violent Sacred: Heidegger and Nietzsche through Mimetic Theory

Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture (SVMC)

by Duane Armitage

Continental and postmodern thinking has misidentified the source of violence as originating from Western metaphysics. It has further failed to acknowledge the Judeo- Christian source of its ethic—the ethic of concern for victims. In this volume Duane Armitage attempts a critique of continental philosophy and postmodernism through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory. This critique is directed primarily at the philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger, both among the foremost representatives of continental and postmodern thought. Armitage argues that Girard’s engagement with Heidegger and Nietzsche radically alters many of the axioms of current postmodern continental philosophy, in particular the overcoming of metaphysics on the theoretical level and continental philosophy’s tacit commitments to (neo-)Marxism on the practical level. Detailed attention to the implications of Girard’s philosophical thought results in a paradigm shift that deals perhaps a deadly blow to continental and postmodern thinking. Armitage further argues that Girard’s thinking solves the very problems that continental and postmodern thinking sought (but failed) to solve, namely the problems of violence and victimization, particularly within the context of the aftermath of the Second World War. Ultimately, this volume shows that at the heart of postmodern thinking lies an entanglement with the violent sacred.

Genres: Philosophy

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2021

Reviews

[Jessika Caruso · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, I am convinced René Girard was a brilliant mind and his works are worthy of further study. I am glad I read this book for a variety of reasons. It served as my introduction into not only the thought of Girard, but that of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Vattimo. Girard’s mimetic theory illuminates the human history of violence and victimization and the overturning of scapegoating in the Christian tradition.

Armitage provides a thorough background into the thought of each philosopher as well as a Girardian crtique of each, in regard to the causes of human violence and exploration of truth and relativism, as well as each philsopher’s views on Christianity. As a Christian, the examination of ancient Greek and Roman religions’ worldviews from the victimizers’ perspective affirmed the absolute genius of the Passion narrative in a new way for me.

My personal faith was also strengthened by Girard’s resistance to any substitutionary atonement claims surrounding Christ’s Passion, as he holds fast to the position that God assumed only the role of victim to invite humanity to cease its victimiazation altogether; at the Crucifixion, humanity committed Deicide, and God did not commit filicide.

I appreciated that Armitage does not conclude the book with abstractions, but provides the solution on how to overcome mimesis. Girard’s only solution to mimetic violence is to simply (yet not so simply) withdraw from the mimetic cycle, imitating Christ’s “withdrawal relationship” with the Father.

A concrete discussion of postmodernism’s relationship to violence is given in the final chapter, “A Girardian Critique on Postmodernity.” Here, we find a brief analysis of the sacred violence in current American culture — where an overcompensation of concern for victims has now victimized the victimizers, valuing equity of outcome over equity of opportunity. Perhaps the most jarring statement of this chapter is Armitage’s supposition that condemnation is “perhaps the only cohesive element left to Western culture.”

Overall, Girard’s belief that postmodernism scapegoats truth as the cause of violence, when violence is actually caused by mimesis (which is part of human nature itself), was supported by the entire text in comprehensive detail. This is a fascinating book that has prompted a desire for further reading on this topic.