Thesis advisor: Brian D. Robinette / This dissertation seeks to develop the theological method operative within James Alison's growing theological corpus, which he describes concisely as a "theology in the order of the discovery." I will argue that the value and contribution of his method lies in the careful and consistent attention that he pays to the ongoing, reciprocal relationship that exists between persons' experiences of receiving faith (that is, experiences of conversion) and persons' attempts to understand the content of that faith through a process of self-reflexive appropriation of it (that is, through engagement in the activity of theological reflection). In the introductory chapter, after defining the key terms of the project, I situate my investigation into Alison's method within the context of several twentieth and twenty-first century Christian theological movements: experiential/transcendental theology, dialectical theology, narrative or postliberal theology, and a theology of proclamation. These comparisons allow for an initial articulation of the characteristics of what I will present increasingly more explicitly throughout the dissertation as Alison's "inductive" theology. Part I of the dissertation, consisting of chapter two, presents the mimetic anthropology of René Girard as the primary intellectual influence on Alison's conception of theology. It considers Girard's gradual development of the terminology that he has employed to express his deepening understanding of the operation of mimetic desire, rivalry, and conversion in order to show that Girard's attempt to develop "a Gospel anthropology" requires a systematic theological perspective to give it greater coherence. With this context in place, Part II proceeds with my study of Alison's theological method. Chapter three develops Alison's implicit understanding of one movement in the reciprocal relationship between the experience of conversion and the activity of theological reflection, namely, the movement from conversion to theological reflection, and it presents theology as a fruit of conversion. The primary aim of the chapter is to show that Alison's view of the New Testament accounts of the resurrection appearances leads him to begin to understand the reciprocal relationship between conversion and theology that has guided his theological performance throughout his career. Chapter four develops Alison's implicit view of the reciprocal movement from theological expression to the potential conversion experiences of others, that is, it presents theology as an occasion for conversion. It draws out Alison's implicit understanding of theology as an act of witness which can provide an occasion for the Spirit of Christ to make the crucified and risen Christ present both to the one giving witness and to those that receive that witness. I conclude in chapter five by demonstrating Alison's inductive theological approach as it is operative in several excerpts from his writings. I then begin to demonstrate the fruitfulness of Alison's inductive method by exploring how this method might contribute to three theological and ministerial questions in need of renewed consideration. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

This dissertation explores how Christian faith affected the hope and resistance of an oppressed people in their response to violence orchestrated against them. It undertakes this task through stories collected from the people of East Timor, a half-island nation located in South-East Asia that was brutally ruled by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. The nature of Christian faith is a vexed question for the modern world particularly when this faith has grown in countries like East Timor where suffering, violence and oppression were inflicted on the people. This lack of understanding of the nature and development of Christian faith is evident in academic studies of East Timor. Moreover, the difficult nature of this question is compounded by the fact that the violence and oppression, such as that inflicted on the East Timorese, is often orchestrated by the nation-state, which itself is a creation of the modern West. Faith in these circumstances of violence is often explained away as a circumstantial reaction after which the people will return to the path of reason. Yet, this attitude is problematic in the way it juxtaposes reason and faith. It ultimately exposes an unsound anthropological understanding of the human person as well as a view of reason that is narrow and insufficient as it sees reason as unable to cope with the circumstances of violence. This dissertation argues for an understanding of faith and violence through an analysis of the experiences of the East Timorese. This analysis is undertaken from an anthropological and theological understanding of the human person, primarily based on the insights of René Girard which provide clarity in understanding the relationship between human being, reason and faith. This dissertation argues that Christian faith helped the East Timorese people confront the existential and anthropological challenges posed by violence, and so, enabled them to overcome the illusions and false transcendence of violence, which Girard (1977, 31) says “…is the heart and secret soul of the sacred”. The dissertation shows that Christian faith helped form purpose, hope and non-violent resistance to state-sanctioned violence in East Timor through the anthropological, existential and imaginative resources fostered in relationship with Christ. The dissertation proposes an explanation of the experiences of the East Timorese recounted in this dissertation that posits that relationship with and faith in Christ, as the self-giving and victimised “Other”, had a discernible and plausible effect on the East Timorese particularly in the circumstances of violence. This faith commitment seemed to change and free persons and cultural structures in East Timor from the violent transcendence imposed by the dictatorial state that presents itself as “sacred”. This freedom emerged as the oppressed and victimised East Timorese, through their experience of the violent depths of human relations, were directed toward the pacific transcendence located around the victim, Christ, the substance of which is Christ’s self-giving love originating from and shared with the Father through the Spirit. East Timorese people were directed and responded to Christ in faith as they encountered the self-giving mimesis of the Trinity sacramentally and through the martyrs. This faith formed a new ontological way, or direction, which fostered resistance to the sacred violence of the state and their supporters. Through the enactment of their faith in this new and pacific way of being in self-giving mimesis, the Christian community in East Timor sought to resist and transform the state into a more benign and responsive entity by exposing and removing its ability to arbitrarily and indiscriminately victimise and oppress. This ecclesiological stance sought to expose the truth in the midst of the lies of sacred violence through a pacific way of being that was learnt from communion with the risen Christ as self-giving victim.

This dissertation explores how Christian faith affected the hope and resistance of an oppressed people in their response to violence orchestrated against them. It undertakes this task through stories collected from the people of East Timor, a half-island nation located in South-East Asia that was brutally ruled by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. The nature of Christian faith is a vexed question for the modern world particularly when this faith has grown in countries like East Timor where suffering, violence and oppression were inflicted on the people. This lack of understanding of the nature and development of Christian faith is evident in academic studies of East Timor. Moreover, the difficult nature of this question is compounded by the fact that the violence and oppression, such as that inflicted on the East Timorese, is often orchestrated by the nation-state, which itself is a creation of the modern West. Faith in these circumstances of violence is often explained away as a circumstantial reaction after which the people will return to the path of reason. Yet, this attitude is problematic in the way it juxtaposes reason and faith. It ultimately exposes an unsound anthropological understanding of the human person as well as a view of reason that is narrow and insufficient as it sees reason as unable to cope with the circumstances of violence. This dissertation argues for an understanding of faith and violence through an analysis of the experiences of the East Timorese. This analysis is undertaken from an anthropological and theological understanding of the human person, primarily based on the insights of René Girard which provide clarity in understanding the relationship between human being, reason and faith. This dissertation argues that Christian faith helped the East Timorese people confront the existential and anthropological challenges posed by violence, and so, enabled them to overcome the illusions and false transcendence of violence, which Girard (1977, 31) says “…is the heart and secret soul of the sacred”. The dissertation shows that Christian faith helped form purpose, hope and non-violent resistance to state-sanctioned violence in East Timor through the anthropological, existential and imaginative resources fostered in relationship with Christ. The dissertation proposes an explanation of the experiences of the East Timorese recounted in this dissertation that posits that relationship with and faith in Christ, as the self-giving and victimised “Other”, had a discernible and plausible effect on the East Timorese particularly in the circumstances of violence. This faith commitment seemed to change and free persons and cultural structures in East Timor from the violent transcendence imposed by the dictatorial state that presents itself as “sacred”. This freedom emerged as the oppressed and victimised East Timorese, through their experience of the violent depths of human relations, were directed toward the pacific transcendence located around the victim, Christ, the substance of which is Christ’s self-giving love originating from and shared with the Father through the Spirit. East Timorese people were directed and responded to Christ in faith as they encountered the self-giving mimesis of the Trinity sacramentally and through the martyrs. This faith formed a new ontological way, or direction, which fostered resistance to the sacred violence of the state and their supporters. Through the enactment of their faith in this new and pacific way of being in self-giving mimesis, the Christian community in East Timor sought to resist and transform the state into a more benign and responsive entity by exposing and removing its ability to arbitrarily and indiscriminately victimise and oppress. This ecclesiological stance sought to expose the truth in the midst of the lies of sacred violence through a pacific way of being that was learnt from communion with the risen Christ as self-giving victim.

This dissertation explores how Christian faith affected the hope and resistance of an oppressed people in their response to violence orchestrated against them. It undertakes this task through stories collected from the people of East Timor, a half-island nation located in South-East Asia that was brutally ruled by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. The nature of Christian faith is a vexed question for the modern world particularly when this faith has grown in countries like East Timor where suffering, violence and oppression were inflicted on the people. This lack of understanding of the nature and development of Christian faith is evident in academic studies of East Timor. Moreover, the difficult nature of this question is compounded by the fact that the violence and oppression, such as that inflicted on the East Timorese, is often orchestrated by the nation-state, which itself is a creation of the modern West. Faith in these circumstances of violence is often explained away as a circumstantial reaction after which the people will return to the path of reason. Yet, this attitude is problematic in the way it juxtaposes reason and faith. It ultimately exposes an unsound anthropological understanding of the human person as well as a view of reason that is narrow and insufficient as it sees reason as unable to cope with the circumstances of violence. This dissertation argues for an understanding of faith and violence through an analysis of the experiences of the East Timorese. This analysis is undertaken from an anthropological and theological understanding of the human person, primarily based on the insights of René Girard which provide clarity in understanding the relationship between human being, reason and faith. This dissertation argues that Christian faith helped the East Timorese people confront the existential and anthropological challenges posed by violence, and so, enabled them to overcome the illusions and false transcendence of violence, which Girard (1977, 31) says “…is the heart and secret soul of the sacred”. The dissertation shows that Christian faith helped form purpose, hope and non-violent resistance to state-sanctioned violence in East Timor through the anthropological, existential and imaginative resources fostered in relationship with Christ. The dissertation proposes an explanation of the experiences of the East Timorese recounted in this dissertation that posits that relationship with and faith in Christ, as the self-giving and victimised “Other”, had a discernible and plausible effect on the East Timorese particularly in the circumstances of violence. This faith commitment seemed to change and free persons and cultural structures in East Timor from the violent transcendence imposed by the dictatorial state that presents itself as “sacred”. This freedom emerged as the oppressed and victimised East Timorese, through their experience of the violent depths of human relations, were directed toward the pacific transcendence located around the victim, Christ, the substance of which is Christ’s self-giving love originating from and shared with the Father through the Spirit. East Timorese people were directed and responded to Christ in faith as they encountered the self-giving mimesis of the Trinity sacramentally and through the martyrs. This faith formed a new ontological way, or direction, which fostered resistance to the sacred violence of the state and their supporters. Through the enactment of their faith in this new and pacific way of being in self-giving mimesis, the Christian community in East Timor sought to resist and transform the state into a more benign and responsive entity by exposing and removing its ability to arbitrarily and indiscriminately victimise and oppress. This ecclesiological stance sought to expose the truth in the midst of the lies of sacred violence through a pacific way of being that was learnt from communion with the risen Christ as self-giving victim.

Guatemala City is a city of contrasts, a city that meshes beauty and affliction. The beauty is reflected in the landscape and its people; affliction, however, is woven throughout Guatemalan history and expressed through the collective woundedness of Guatemalan society. After more than five hundred years of colonialism and coloniality, and twenty-four years after the signing of the peace accords between the army and the revolutionary movement in 1996, Guatemalans still carry their collective woundedness into all areas of personal and public life. For that reason, this dissertation responds to the question, what will a practical theology of peacebuilding look like in Guatemala City in response to the collective woundedness of Guatemalan society? In order to respond to the question presented above, I use the paradigms of practical theology, liberation theology, and mimetic theory in dialogue with each other to provide a relevant, contextual, and liberative response. In the search for an answer, I interviewed fourteen grassroots leaders from the CMT Guatemala network, and I explored their faith practices in relation to the Guatemalan collective woundedness. The process follows three steps. Firstly, I provide a description of the Guatemalan context, and the theory-laden practices of the interviewed grassroots leaders. Secondly, I framed the dissertation within contextual theology in order to develop a practical theology of liberation that is contextually relevant and cross-contextually applicable. Finally, the theory-laden practices that the interviews and focus groups called forth helped me propose a practical theology of liberation that responds to the Guatemalan collective woundedness through the ethics of what I call Human Catechism. Human Catechism is a term conceived in community, though proposed for the first time in this dissertation. Human Catechism begins with the ethics of love. It is the process of developing faith practices that help us reimagine each other’s humanity in the midst of global sacrificial theology. In this dissertation, I propose that Human Catechism is a practical theology of peacebuilding and liberation that seeks to heal the collective woundedness of not only the Guatemalan context, but also other environments around the world. This dissertation contributes in three ways to the field of practical theology. Firstly, it applies René Girard’s mimetic theory to field of practical theology. Secondly, it provides a tool that could be used for contextual analysis. I developed interdependent categories for contextual analysis that can easily be translated to other developing countries of the global south. Finally, it contributes at the local level empowering grassroots leaders to begin conversations that will allow them to decolonise their faith practices, and hermeneutics. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Practical Theology / PhD / Unrestricted

The Mimetic Theory (MT) of René Girard promises a new landscape for the humanities. In this paper I will outline MT, giving a brief overview of the terrain and how the theory works, defend MT against criticisms made against it, and argue that MT ought to be evaluated by a wider academic audience. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-03 14:15:30.176

In 1972, with the publication of Violence and the Sacred, René Girard makes the stunning assertion that violence is the foundation of culture. Humanity’s innate urges for competition and rivalry entrap us in cycles of violence, which left alone would find no resolution. Girard calls the cause of this rivalry “mimetic desire”, and the only way out of this deeply embedded vengeance is to create a scapegoat to take the blame, reconciling the conflicting parties. Girard asserts that the biblical texts uniquely reveal the mechanisms of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating, and even demystify sacrificial rituals as nothing more than sacrilized “good” violence to keep a fragile peace. This revelation, according to Girard, can finally allow us to remove violence from the sacred. Much scholarship has been devoted to Girard’s theory, in particular how it offers a viable alternative to the still-dominant sacrificial theology of the cross. But there is little scholarship on the connection between Girard and Judaism; and Girard’s own work leaves us with a picture of Judaism that is at best incomplete, and at worst unable to find an answer to disturbing violence permeating the scriptures. This dissertation brings the Hebrew Bible into dialogue with Girard’s ideas in a systematic fashion to assert, contra Girard, that the Jewish revelation is a full, effective and even practical expression of his theory. After an overview of Girard’s work in the first chapter, the dissertation examines three Jewish “vaccines” to the mimetic disease as follows: the Birkhat ha-Banim (“The Blessing of the Children”); the reading of the Book of Esther on Purim; and the reading of Jonah on Yom Kippur. The conclusion to the dissertation asserts, drawing on these three demonstrations, the following points: 1) Rene Girard gives an important and clarifying lens to aid us in finding a new way to talk about, understand, and unify Jewish scripture and ritual; 2) a Jewish perspective can help flesh out what a different “revelation” of Girard’s mimetic desire looks like—even providing prescriptions to curtail this desire; and 3) positive mimesis is possible, and there are Hebrew examples of it free of originary violence. The final chapter addresses certain challenges in reconciling Girard with Judaism, moving toward a sincere Jewish Girardianism that will harmonize with the central views of the tradition.

ABSTRACT CULTURAL LEADERSHIP AND PEACE: AN EDUCATIONAL RESPONSE TO RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE by B. David Rowe This study is a philosophical inquiry into violence as the consequence of dysfunctional meaning-making processes. It establishes a theory of leadership development which requires, catalyzes, and sustains a reinvigorated relationship between education and religion in order to create more pacific ways of making meaning on interpersonal, organizational, institutional, societal, and global levels. The inquiry articulates an understanding of leadership as drawing on educative and religious processes for the deployment of power in order to make meaning with or on behalf of groups of people at various levels of social complexity. The analysis demonstrates that leadership is informed by and can inform institutional patterns of behavior and signification. Examination of leadership style on a developmental continuum of more and less violent modes of deploying power simultaneously offers insight into the origin of violent social relationships and into a process for creating more pacific ways of making meaning. Therefore, providing a path of personal cognitive and moral development along this continuum for organizational, institutional, societal, and global leaders offers one approach to influencing the development of social institutions which, in turn, influence the development of other leaders, along a mutually formative path toward interpersonal and global peace. The examination of leadership as energy deployment for the purpose of making meaning offers an opportunity to consider religion as an institution which encodes meaning making processes for society and individuals alike and to consider education as an institution which encodes behavior and norms attendant to the explication of reality. Rehabilitating religion and education in order to play these respective social roles more effectively requires more sophisticated leaders who deploy energy in less violent ways. Conversely, leadership development is constrained and empowered by these institutions which are in need of such growth themselves. This philosophical inquiry, therefore, synthesizes a new theory capable of framing new questions for leadership development and institutional growth with personal, organizational, societal, and global implications. The theory creates the category of Cultural Leadership which becomes a model for making meaning in less violent ways while providing a pathway for personal and social growth toward sustainable peace.

La présente recherche porte sur les applications possibles de la théorie mimétique de René Girard à des oeuvres cinématographiques américaines et européennes de trois périodes : l'entre-deux-guerres,les années 1970 et les années 2000.Cette étude se situe dans le champ d'une sociologie de l'imaginaire dont l'anthropologie du religieux constitue l'axe épistémologique principal.A partir des notions-clés de mimesis, de sacré, de sacrifice et de violence comme termes permettant de penser la sociogenèse, nous tentons de renouveler la lecture d'oeuvres classiques et récentes du cinéma d'auteur américain et européen. Le lien originel de la violence et du sacré constituerait,selon nous, un axe interprétatif essentiel pour la compréhension du lien du social à une violence fondatrice. Dans notre étude, nous analysons les oeuvres cinématographiques comme autant de mythes et de rituels affaiblis, héritiers du sacré et susceptibles à ce titre de transfigurer la violence.Quel sens donner à cette transfiguration esthétique aujourd’hui ? C’est en nous focalisant sur le passage historique du tiers au double, dont les films que nous analysons sont autant de jalons, que nous avons voulu reconstituer ce « parcours de la méconnaissance » qui semble se confondre avec la violence et le même. / The present study is concerned with the possible applications of René Girard’s mimetic theory toAmerican and European films from three different periods : the interwar period, the 1970s and the2000s.This work belongs to the field of the ‘sociology of the imaginary’, of which religious anthropologyconstitutes the main epistemological axis.Based on key notions such as mimesis, the sacred, sacrifice and violence, which facilitate thereflection on sociogenesis, this study represents an attempt to renew the interpretation of classic, aswell as recent, american or european art-house cinema. The original link between violence and thesacred may offer an essential interpretative axis for a proper understanding of the relationshipbetween social matters and a founding violence. In this work, we approach cinematic works asweakened forms of myth and ritual, heirs of the sacred which are, for this very reason, liable totransfigure violence. Which meaning can be given to this aesthetic transfiguration nowadays ? Byfocusing on the historical transition from the third to the double, of which the movies analyzed hereare milestones, I have attempted to reconstruct

La thèse entend proposer un commentaire de la Chanson de Roland, fondé sur l'analyse minutieuse de toutes les variantes qui nous soient parvenues. Cette prise en considération de l'ensemble des versions françaises, rompant avec le dogme de la précellence du manuscrit d'Oxford, s'explique logiquement par la nature mouvante des œuvres médiévales, mais s'enracine aussi dans la conviction d'une texture mythique du poème de Roncevaux. Aussi le recours à la mythologie comparée constitue-t-il une ligne de force majeure du présent travail : s'inscrivant dans la tradition des études indo-européennes telles que Georges Dumézil a contribué à les fonder, la thèse propose une comparaison morphologique entre les mythes de Baldr et de Roland. Cet essai de mythologie comparée forme un premier temps dans l'analyse de la texture mythique du poème et peut être considéré comme autonome. Il s'articule cependant avec le travail de comparaison typologique qui lui succède. La thèse se propose en effet d'étudier la Chanson de Roland à la lumière de l'hypothèse victimaire élaborée par René Girard, qui permet de penser sous un jour nouveau l'esthétique et l'idéologie de la chanson de geste. De fait, la poétique de la répétition et l'art de la symétrie sont justiciables de la théorie du désir mimétique, tout comme la crise épique entretient des analogies étroites avec le modèle de la crise sacrificielle. C'est autour de la question anthropologique de la violence et de l'ambiguïté de la figure du guerrier mythique que ce travail réconcilie deux méthodes réputées incompatibles et pourtant complémentaires dans l'analyse qu'elles proposent de l'ambivalence des héros épiques. / This doctoral thesis intends to propose a commentary of the Chanson de Roland, based on a meticulous analysis of all the variants which have reached posterity. By paying close attention to the whole of French versions and by refusing to comment the sole manuscript of Oxford, as most of scholars do, we comply with the unsettled nature of medieval poetry and furthermore support the idea that the Chanson de Roland should be considered as a myth. The comparative mythology thus constitutes a main thrust of this work : in the tradition on Indo-european studies as founded by Georges Dumézil, we compare the myth of Roland to the myth of Balder, on a morphological level. The essay of comparative mythology is the first part of our commentary and could be regarded as self-reliant. However, it forms a single entity with the essay of typological comparison which follows. The thesis actually intends to interpret the poem in the light of the theory developed by René Girard, which allows to analyze the aesthetics and the ideology of the chanson de geste in a new light. The poetic of repetition and the art of symmetry are closely linked to the hypothesis of mimetic desire, just like the epic crisis is closely linked to the model of the sacrificial crisis. By studying the anthropological question of violence and the ambiguous figure of mythical warrior, this work combines two approaches, deemed to be irreconcilable and nevertheless complementary, in the sense that they interpret in the same way the ambivalence of epic heroes.