Secularization as Kenosis

secularization as kenosis | 201
secular culture of the West, because the violent mechanism inherent in all forms of
human culture can easily survive in an immanentist ontology. Girard finds this mechanism
constitutive of human culture and he sees traces of it in a wide range of cultural
phenomena, from primitive religion to modern novels. Unfortunately, the gospel of the
death and resurrection of Christ has also been interpreted in terms of the metaphysics of
violence. Girard has suggested that we interpret the incarnation and suffering of Christ
as the event in which these mimetic and violent mechanisms were exposed. Thereby he
distances himself from classical theological dogmas, which define the death of Christ as
a placatio, as a sacrifice that pays for the sins of human beings. 127 Vattimo sees the presence
of violence in the Bible and the history of the Church as a transitional phase. In
the tradition of G.E. Lessing, Vattimo speaks of divine pedagogy and divine education,
suggesting a growing awareness of the spiritual, non-violent nature of true religion. 128
Vattimo suggests moving a ‘little bit’ beyond Girard, by considering the theistic tradition
as of a piece with the violent scapegoat mechanism. To Vattimo’s mind, it would be
in continuity with Girard’s theories to deny God the predicates classical theology has
ascribed to him such as omnipotence and eternity, and his transcendence. It is questionable
however to what extent this is coherent with Girard, or rather contradicts Girard’s
theory. 129 Vattimo suggests that we can identify the God of metaphysics, (ipsum esse
subsistens) with the violence of the scapegoat mechanism and with the God of whom
Nietzsche spoke as the God who had died.
I think Vattimo here unrightfully identifies Judaism and Christianity with ontotheology
and monotheism with violence. Surely, Girard’s theory does not depend on a
correspondence theory of truth in a static and ontological sense. But he does hold that
the anthropological theories of mimetic desire and the scapegoat mechanism have the
facts right. His idea, contra Vattimo, that there are not only interpretations, but also
facts, means that there are anthropological facts and that there is no relativism involved
in recognizing and judging then. For Girard, the Christian witness of the unique God
of the Bible – who is decisively different from the gods of natural theology – cannot
be left out without jeopardizing the whole theory of scapegoating and mimetic desire.
For transcendence is for Girard a necessary condition for preventing violence. Vattimo
does not recognize that the flattening out of transcendence and his truth pluralism are
not shared by Girard. Whereas Vattimo holds that there are ‘only interpretations’, Girard
is an advocate of the truth and uniqueness of orthodox Christianity. 130 Christianity
cannot approach other religions and cultures by leaving the witness of violent sacrifice
Religion’, in: P.H.A.I. Jonkers and Ruud Welten, editors, God In France: Eight Contemporary French Thinkers
On God (Leuven, 2005), 75.
127 Vattimo describes Girard’s position as follows: “Jesus’ incarnation did not take place to supply the
father with a victim adequate to his wrath; rather, Jesus came into the world precisely to reveal and abolish
the nexus between violence and the sacred. He was put to death because such a revelation was intolerable to
a humanity rooted in the violent tradition of sacrificial religions.” Vattimo, Belief, 37.
128 Vattimo, After Christianity, 38.
129 Vattimo argues “. . . that the natural sacred is violent not only insofar as the victim-based mechanism
presupposes a divinity thirsty for vengeance, but also insofar as it attributes to such a divinity all the
predicates of omnipotence, absoluteness, eternity and transcendence with respect to humanity that are precisely
the attributes assigned to God by natural theologies, even by those who think of themselves as the
prolegomena to the Christian faith.” Vattimo, Belief, 39.
130 René Girard, ‘Not Just Interpretations, there Are Facts, Too’, in: Pierpaolo Antonello, René Girard
and Gianni Vattimo, editors, Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2010), 95–6.