Introduction

Abstract

Because both theology and anthropology have a distinctive role to play in mimetic theory, it makes good sense briefly to examine these fields of understanding before examining how they hold together in the thought of René Girard. First of all, theology. Some people assume that theology is the discipline that deals with anything vaguely religious. But this is not what a theologian would think. Religious studies are the discipline which looks at the different forms of life that we moderns call “religions,” and it presupposes a studied neutrality about any truth value in those religions. In other words, religious studies require no personal commitment to any religion at all. Theology, on the other hand, is a confessional discipline: Theology presupposes that God speaks or has spoken.