BEING SAVED FROM SALVATION: RENE GIRARD & THE VICTIMS OF RELIGION

This article explores the contribution offered by Rene Girard to the task of constructing a soteriology (doctrine of salvation) for the present day. Specifically, does soteriology necessarily imply a 'pact with the negative' - a description, in other words of a deficient human nature which has to be corrected or healed? Girard's 'mimetic theory' articulates salvation in terms of the need to regulate and stabilise human desire, and the social violence (scapegoating) that all too easily arises from it. For Girard, this has involved a re-evaluation of the place of sacrifice in theolgical discourse. The structure of this controversial approach can be better appreciated if we compare with that of Anselm of Canterbury, who like Girard sought to challenge problematic ways of thinking about salvation in Christ, and to do so by using an idiom (satisfaction) which would speak more directly to the people of his day.