Abstract
Girard’s apocalyptic thought, in keeping with the Biblical apocalypse, balances warnings about imminent catastrophe with expressions of hope. In Girard’s case, the affirmation of hope is carefully nuanced; it is a kind of “hoping against hope.” Yet, for Girard, it would be the “wrong thing” also to hope for the indefinite, perhaps even permanent, deferral of catastrophe. Such a deferral would presuppose the preservation of the national and international structures of order now more or less in place—that is, broadly speaking, the “powers and principalities” that characterize capitalist secular humanism.
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Further Reading
Doran, Robert and René Girard, “Apocalyptic Thinking after 9/11: An Interview with René Girard,” SubStance Vol. 37, No. 1, Issue 115 (2008): 20–32.
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert, ed. Politics and Apocalypse. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2007.
Ward, Bruce K. “Apocalypse and Modernity.” In Thomas Merton: Monk on the Edge. Edited by Ross Labrie and Angus Stewart. Vancouver, BC: Thomas Merton Society of Canada, 2012.
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Ward, B.K. (2017). Apocalypse: Hope Against All Hope. In: Alison, J., Palaver, W. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_53
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_53
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