Michael Hardin - Reading the Bible With Rene Girard: Conversations With Steven E. Berry

Praise for Reading the Bible with Ren Girard

One of the many gifts of Ren Girard is his ability to unfold his theory in interviews. Some of his best writings belong to this genre. Depending on the partners who engage with him many of these dialogues open new perspectives on mimetic theory. Reading the Bible with Rene Girard is a wonderful example of this. I especially liked all the biographical comments; many of them were new to me.

~ Wolfgang Palaver, Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Dean of the School of Catholic Theology at the Universitt Innsbruck, Austria, Past COV&R President

Reading the Bible with Ren Girard is an important contribution both to understanding the Bible as a "work in progress" that continues into our own lives and to introducing the ground-breaking insights of Ren Girard on the human condition and the love of God that breaks through to us in the historical process. Girard's basic themes of imitative desire, the violence that is both expressed and contained in scapegoating and sacrifice, and the decisive revelation of our different ways of sanctioning violence and the divine response to this violence in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ all have their foundation in the Bible itself as an ongoing interpretive process. Steven Berry does an excellent job of eliciting the range of Girard's thought and his appreciation of the Bible and Michael Hardin has polished the text of these interviews into an extremely readable final form.

~ James G. Williams , Syracuse University, Past COV&R President

"Very often Ren Girard is at his best when he talks freely in a relaxed interview style. Reading the Bible With Rene Girard provides the master of mimetic theory with one more chance to show this strength. It is indeed hearing the master's voice."

~ Niki Wandinger, Professor at the University of Innsbruck, COV&R Bulletin Editor

Over the past several decades, the famed literary critic and social theorist Ren Girard has applied his theory of mimetic rivalry and generative scapegoating to the Western literary canon in a series of brilliant and highly illuminating commentaries on such great writers as Shakespeare, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, and the Greek tragedians. Now, in Reading the Bible with Ren Girard: Conversations with Stephen E. Berry , he turns his attention to a text of unparalleled importance in shaping both the civilization of the West and, more and more each day, our emerging international communitythe Bible. Girard brings the insights of mimetic theory to both the Old and New Testaments, offering fresh new interpretations of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Joseph and his brothers, Abraham and Isaac, the Psalms, the Song of the Suffering Servant, Job, the Gerasene demoniac, the Parable of the Vineyard, Peters denial, and of course the Passion of Christ. Dismissing fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible that treat every word as equally authoritative, Girard hears multiple voices speaking from its pages, with relics of the archaic religion born of scapegoating preserved alongside powerful critiques of sacred violence that reveal the innocence of the victim. As a work of Christian apologetics, Reading the Bible with Ren Girard is unique in that it offers an entirely new way of understanding the Bible as revelatory.

However, Reading the Bible with Ren Girard contains more than just biblical exegesis. In the course of a discussion of Girards life and intellectual developmentfrom his school years in occupied France to his long career teaching at various American universities and his recent induction into the Acadmie Franaise it offers a succinct and accessible digest of the genesis of his mimetic theory and its central insights. But, even more, Reading the Bible with Ren Girard expands into a bold account of the trajectory of human history, in which the biblical text is said to hold the key to understanding not only our violent past but also our uncertain future. One might disagree with some of his specific arguments and claimshis uncharitable readings of Plato and Nietzsche, for instancebut Girard remains at all times a brilliant and provocative thinker who constantly challenges us to look beyond the bewitching surface of our world and recognize the profound mimetic forces at work within it. One comes away from Reading the Bible with Ren Girard unable to view the Bibleor the modern world that has been so decisively shaped by itin quite the same way ever again.

~ George A. Dunn, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Indianapolis

"Clear, conversational, and as always brilliantly insightful. There are few more exciting conversation partners for the beauty of orthodoxy than Girardian anthropology. And there are few more accessible introductions as this little gem."

~ Jarrod McKenna Australian peace award-winning pastor, activist and cofounder of First Home Project.

Whether your faith is in God or science, this conversation with Girard will nudge you with the patience of a good friend into a deeper understanding of yourself and the world in which we live. I encourage you to join Girard as he retells the story of his great discovery of the truth about God, humanity and violence lurking in the Bible.

~ Suzanne Ross, co-founder of The Raven Foundation, author of The Wicked Truth.

This is a wonderful introduction to Ren Girard's work. Through it one can follow the unfolding of his theory in the context of his life. The text retains its flavor as conversation and so makes "listening in" even easier. We are lucky to have this!

~ Jeremiah Alberg, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, International Christian University, Tokyo Japan , COV&R President

Since the 1970s, Ren Girard has had much to say on the Judeo-Christian texts, offering us a startlingly profound series of reflections on the Old and New Testaments, reflections that should be of interest not merely to believers, but anyone interested in exploring some of the deepest sources of western cultural understanding and critique. Here, finally, we have in one volume a dialogue dedicated exclusively to this dimension of Girards work. In this excellent book, you are invited to sit in on a series of conversations with one of the leading thinkers of our time, concerning matters of the utmost philosophical, theological, and practical significance. This is a very important volume indeed.

~ Dr. Chris Fleming, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney

An invaluable addition to Ren Girard primary sources, piquing fresh questions and perspectives on his game-changing thought of original violence. The relaxed wide-ranging comments lead directly to the heart of the Girardian paradox. On the one hand his reading of the Bible cries out for a radically new iteration of Christian faith and practice. On the other he appears deeply to favor a gradualist and conservative approach. He places "the religion of love" above "violent religions" but he sees a reflection of the divine even in the latter. And while Catholicism has a wisdom that does not "hurry up" the apocalypse, Protestantism "is driven for the good, but this drive can become excessive." A must-have for all those tracing out the signs of our times, seeking to reimagine Christian theology and meaning in a post-Girardian universe.

~Anthony Bartlett, author of Virtually Christian and co-founder of Theology and Peace

Reading the Bible

with Ren Girard:

Conversations with Steven E. Berry

Foreword by Scott Cowdell

Reading the Bible with Ren Girard:

Conversations with Steven E. Berry

Copyright 2015 Michael and Lorri Hardin

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Published in the United States of America by

JDL Press

Lancaster, PA 17602