OUTSIDE THE CITY, BETWEEN THE CITIES: RENE GIRARD AND RADICAL EVIL

This article undertakes an appraisal of the work of Rene Girard with respect to contemporary philosophical discussion of the problem of evil. It notes a convergence between the dissatisfaction of philosophers who are suspicious of postmodern philosophy's abdication of reason (Rose), or see the problem of evil reduced to a kind of intellectual puzzle (Bernstein, Neiman), and the distinctive account of intellectual history offered by Girard in an essay entitled History and the Paraclete. The journey from Lisbon to Auschwitz' - taking in the supernatural, natural, and human dimensions of the problem of evil - is for Susan Neiman the 'alternative' story of modern philosophy itself In this story Girard's account of the scapegoating phenonmenon makes a contribution, exemplified in the fact that both Girard and Immanuel Kant, reflecting upon the problem of theodicy, find themselves drawn to the Book of Job for answers.