르네 지라르(René Girard)의 성서적 종교와 비폭력

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The French literary critic and anthropologist Rene Girard has claimed to discover the mechanism that links violence and religion. The extent of his claim is even more audacious he believes that in the mechanism linking violence and religion lie the origins of culture. Our purpose is to present this thesis symphathetically, then point out what has been made of it by critics, and draw conclusions concerning its relevance to interpretation especially in the world in which we live today. According to Girard. human culture has been founded on two principles, which he calls "mimetic rivalry" and the "surrogate victim mechanism." Mimesis refers to the propensity of humans to imitate other people both consciously and unconsciously. Girard observes that the desire to appropriate another person`s possessions. lovers and very being may seem innocent at first, but it poses a fundamental threat to community life. In imitating one`s models. one may come to approach others` power and threaten others` own position? in which case others quickly become rivals who tell one not to imitate them. When one imitates the model`s thoughts. there is hamronry; when one imitates the model`s desires, the model becomes one`s obstacle and rival. Mimesis thus inexorably leads to rivalry, and rivalry leads sooner or later to violence. From his study of mimetic desire in the modem novel, Girard named to the relation of violence and the sacred in early cultures, especially in primal religions and Greek tragedy. Girard believes, a long series of primal murders, repeated endlessly over possibly a million years. taught early humans that the death of one or more members of the group would bring a mysterious peace and discharge of tension. This pattern is the foundation of what Girard calls the "surrogate victim mechanism" . Often the dead person was hailed as a bearer of peace. a sacred figure. even god. Fearful that unrestrained violence would return, early humans sought ritual ways to re-enact and resolve the sacrificial crisis of distinctions in order to contain violence. This is why rituals from around the world call for the sacrifice of humans and animals. For Girard, the sacred first appears as violence directed at a sacrificial victim, a scapegoat. Every culture achieves stability by discharging the tensions of mimetic rivalry and violence onto scapegoats. Scapegoating channels and expels tensions recur, a new crisis threatens, and sacred violence is once again necessary. According to Girard, every culture arises from the incessantly repeated patterns of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating. Some authors, like the Greek tragedians, caught a glimpse of the underlying dynamics of the cycle and the arbitrariness of the choice of victim. But only the Bible, Girard contends, offers a full unveiling of the pattern of violence and a rejection of it. Girard began his career as a secular thinker unaffiliated with any religious tradition led him to conclude that the Christian revelation unveils the patterns of violence and provides the divine response. Having become convinced that the gospel alone reveals the full truth of the human condition, Girard became a Christian. According to Girard`s interpretation of the Bible. the people of Israel were. like all other people, steeped in the surrogate victim mechanism. But the biblical authors, especially the psalmist, the prophets, and the sages of Isreal, recognized the primordial pattern and denounced it. Many psalms express the perspective of the victims, and the author of the Book of Job sides with the maligned Job rather than his friends. The Suffering Servant poems present the age-old mythological drama: a crowd surrounds and innocent victim and heaps abuse upon him. The point of view, however, has changed. The biblical author does not accept the charges: the victim is innocent and is vindicated by God. Such is also the message of the New Testament. In Jesus. God appears in history as the innocent victim, who goes to