Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Human beings are prone to violence of all kinds, and they are generally religious. Violence and religion are also thick, difficult-to-define concepts. Are they related? Two seminal thinkers stand as cornerstones in this modern debate. For Emile Durkheim, religion is both a cohesive social force and potential antagonist, uniting the community around ritual norms at odds with outsiders, against whom violence is routinely justified. For Rene Girard, internal mediation of mimetic desire generates rivalries that are assuaged through the ritual sacrifice of scapegoats to hold off social chaos and anomie. Girard writes from within a Christian tradition he argues overcomes this scapegoat doom loop. While Durkheim is a skeptical empiricist about religion, and Girard is a literary man writing from within the Christian tradition, both conclude that religion reduces violence and does not increase it.
Source: Religions
DOI: 10.3390/rel15121545
Author: Matthew Hallgarth
Institution: Tarleton State University
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,046
OpenAlex ID: W4405585226