maximus and rene girard

7/28/2019 Maximus and Rene Girard

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Bulletin of theTransilvaniaUniversity of Braov Vol. 3 (52) - 2010Series VII: Social Sciences Law

MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR AND RENGIRARD: A HERMENEUTIC APPROACH

Daniela SOREA1

Abstract:For Maximus the Confessor, the Holy Scriptures is a guide forthe ascetic ascension and the commandment to imitate the Lord means love.

For R. Girard, Christs passions take down the resorts of the victims

mechanism, signaling the mimetic functioning of culture and the falsesacredness instituted by violence. In hermeneutic approach, the two

discourses unveil their similitude, proving alternative paths from the text of

the Scriptures to their significance.

Key words:hermeneutics, asceticism, sacred, violence.

1 Department of Sociology-Philosophy, TransilvaniaUniversity of Braov.

1. Introduction

Hermeneutics means search forsignificance. Initially denoting a modality

for approaching the text of the Scriptures,the term extended its connotations, turninginto a fruitful method for approaching anydiscourse and entering thereby in the fieldof philosophy. The operation of significancesearch may develop, starting from the textlevel, upwards or downwards; it is creditingor deconstruction, remaining within the

limits of the previous definition. Thisstatement may be argued for in the very

initial field of hermeneutics, the text of theScriptures.

The interpretative discourse may beascendant or descendent, may enrich thetext or may impoverish it. In an example

close at hand, Maximus the Confessorcredits the text of the Scriptures and RenGirard, in a likewise hermeneutic approach,refuses its metaphoric dimension. The twodivergent interpretations function on the

same text and they are approaches of thesame type.

The paper herein argues for the sensesimilarity of these two hermeneuticdiscourses. Maximus the Confessor andRen Girard preach love to the same extent.

Heraclites path upwards and downwardsproves to be, once again, one and the same.

2. Steps towards Self-Accomplishmentat Maximus the Confessor

For Maximus the Confessor, DumitruStniloaie deems, [3] our Lords

embodiment is the sense and the purposeof the world. It was created to be sacrificed

to God, to the purpose of Christs mystery.The sin, defined as separation of the will

from the natures reason to be, is adiminution of the human being and anarrowing of the world. It is a closing of

the access to meanings, a sliding on thesensible surface of the things, a valuationof the sentient against the reasoning itshould have served. Salvation is there-opening towards the world and thereby

towards God. The deification process isconducted by divinity within the world as


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Bulletin of the TransilvaniaUniversity of Braov Vol. 3 (52) - 2010 Series VII258

efficient power and from outside, aspurpose. The divine plan of unificationwith the human involves two moments. Inthe first, God turned into human being. Inthe second, the human being turns intoGod, through unification with Him.Between the first moment, of theembodiment and the moment of thedeification, there is interposed theclimbing. It has, in Maximus theConfessors standpoint, three steps: thepurification from passions, the knowledge

in spirit upon the worlds reasons to be andthe unification with God throughcontemplation, in His direct Light, of thereasons to be of things. On another plan, incorrespondence with it, Christianity meanscommandment, dogma and faith. At theend of the climbing, the accord with natureis remade, asked by its very sense.

The Ascension is only possible through

the Logos, which is through the reasonhidden within nature. Through the

embodiment, the Logos undertookhumanity, contradicting from within itspenchant towards the sensitive and

constituting Himself, along a subtleexercise of dialectics, into a model of non-

suffering through passions. The climbingis the ever-thinning of the climbers beingand of the world, so as to allow the Logosto be perceived in them, less body andmore Word, in virtue of the simple andintuitive understanding. [4]

The climbing fulfills itself, without

coming to an end, in the human beingslifting to the condition of God throughGrace and opens for it the possibility of theapophatic knowledge. The ascension issimultaneously a mystic death. ThroughJesus, a universal law functions, the one ofimmortality through death.

For Maximus the Confessor, theScriptures are guide on the path of theascetic achievement of the union with God.Its text is a long metaphor for the fight ofthe Logos in the body and at the same time

a subtle course of elaborated psychology.The biblical situations are, in a deepersignificance, consignations of thepermanent fight within the climber,between passions and grace.Corresponding to the three levels of theself-accomplishment, the Scriptures intheir horizontal development possess theever-deeper cover of the clerical man: theLaw is his body, the Prophets are hisfeelings and the Evangels, his soul.

If existence lies in Gods power, then the

participation in His goodness and wisdomresides in the rational beings power. Theoption for Christs path is an issue ofpotency and act, placed under the sign ofthe embodied Logos, as example of non-suffering. The commandment to imitateGod means love. In virtue of this love, theworld fulfils its sense, God uniting withhumankind. Through the Logos within

oneself, the human being intertwines in thedivine Logos and in the reason of things,

which means in love.

3. The Transcendence of Love asAlternative to the Transcendence ofViolence

Human conflicts strike roots in themimetic, Ren Girard shows. [2] Nothingin human behavior can elude the reductionto imitation. The relation between thesubject and the desired object is neverinnocent. There is no spontaneous wish.

Any desire is mediated; it depends on themodel that the subject imitates. Themediator is as uglier as it simultaneouslyplays the part of model and the oneobstacle against the satisfaction of thesubjects desire. Competition generatesrivalry. The subject and the desiremediator take this way shape assymmetrically antagonist characters,perceiving themselves as essentiallyseparated, although they are identicalthrough desire. The desired object is


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SOREA, D.Maximus the Confessor and Ren Girard: a hermeneutic approach 259

forbidden not because of the law, as Freuddeemed, but because of those emphasizingit as desirable, wanting it in his turn.

When mimicry reaches its climax, itsdouble power of attraction (towards themodel) and repulsion (against the obstacle)rises and rapidly transmits itself from oneindividual to the other as hatred. In thatmoment the state of mimetic crises isinstituted. The extension of the rivalriesdetermines their purification, which is thedetachment from the object and the

aversion orientation towards the samevictim. The victim turns into scapegoat. Itis innocent but it polarizes the collectivehatred and solves the crisis. The lynchedcommon victim is then sanctified, in virtueof the responsibility for disorder and order.The process describes the functioning ofthevictims mechanism, Girard shows.

The scapegoat is simultaneously looked

at in horror, as it brings along disease, andwith veneration, as it possesses healing

powers. In the reversal of the relationbetween the persecutor and the victims, thesacredness comes into being, Girard

thinks. The master of life is the master ofdeath.

Within traditional societies, there areinterdictions with respect to violence andgroup imitation. The primitives knew theirreciprocity, for which reason theyinstituted the rules that aim at the mimeticcontagion as regards objects that cannot beshared in peace, which are: women, food,

social positions. These interdictionsapproach the mimetic crisis in void; theyare attempts to remove it. The rituals copewith the mimetic crisis in development,orienting the events in a previously proveddirection.

The process of humanization stands for aseries of floors in mastering the ever-increasing mimetic intensity, separatedthrough catastrophic crises, howeverfecund, to the extent in which theygenerate more and more rigorous

interdictions and more and more efficientcanalization rituals.

The myths conserve and conceal theinformation on the funding lynchingGirard deems. Rituals disguise the fundinglynching less than the myths.

There are two distinct moments in themyth. The first of them aims at accusingthe scapegoat, which is not yet sacred, butcondensates the malefic powers. Thesecond moment, the one of the positivesacredness, aims at the change towards the

better of the scapegoats malefic powers,simultaneously with the communitymembers reconciliation.

All religious phenomena have the samemodel, Girard further shows. [1] Thedifferentiations come from the distinctinterpretations of the funding event. Theseinterpretations emphasize either thebenefic aspect, or the malefic aspect of the

victims sacrifice. The power of religioncomes from the capacity to supply useful

advice for keeping some tolerable relationswithin the group.

All human institutions are reproductions

of the reconciling victims mechanism.The differentiations are due to the different

interval instituted between the victimsselection and the sacrifice.

There is a trans-cultural scheme ofcollective violence, generating persecutions.As stereotypes, in this scheme, there enterviolence, social and cultural crisis,accusations of non-differentiation crimes

(such as parricide, incest, rape,lese-majesty, bestiality, profanations,poisoning) and the signs of victimsselection. The abnormality which impressesthe crowds turns into a sign of guilt for thecrisis of society.

The history of culture keeps thepersecutors perspective upon the schemeof collective violence and upon its ownpersecutions. Contemporary people deemmyths to be fictive; however they do notdoubt the Jews massacre or the massacres


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in the Middle Age. The correctcomprehension of the historical texts uponthese massacres is dated at the beginningof the modern age and might be followedby the correct understanding of the myths.

In the medieval texts, there isemphasized only the first of the victimsmechanism moments, the one of accusingthe scapegoat. This partial representationsignals the fact that collective violence is amyth producing machine, functioningmore and more badly in the Western

cultural universe, because of the rise in thehuman power of deciphering.

Religions and culture dissimulateviolence so as to substantiate andperpetuate themselves. The rise in thehuman power of deciphering is due to theaction of a force that counter-acts thecultural tendency towards occultingsacrifices. This force is, Girard deems, the

one of the Bible. The Western power toanalyze cultural mechanisms comes from

the indirect and unnoticed influence of theScriptures.

Jesus passions represent the same story,

however from a perspective refusing thepersecutory interpretation. The victims

guilt constitutes itself in principal resort ofthe scapegoat mechanism. Taking downthe mechanism resorts impedes itsfunctioning. Contemporary Westernersbelieve less and less in the guilt ofscapegoat-type victim. The persecutorsunanimity could not impose their

perspective upon the event in the case ofChrists passions. Jesus death perpetuateditself with another significance than theregular one. This signification did notimmediately impose itself, but graduallypenetrated Evangelized peoples.

History is worked by Evangelicalrevelation. Evangels are not myths. Theyrender the same murder, however from thevictims perspective. Unlike mythicalvictims, Jesus refuses any complicity withviolence. The mythical victims

resurrection and sanctification arephenomena represented from thepersecutors perspective within thepersecutory mechanism. JesusResurrection ruins the persecutorymechanism, as it produces against it.

The violent order of culture, revealedthrough Jesus passions cannot survive toits own revelation. Spirit works in historyto reveal the victims mechanism, sourceof the mythologies and of the gods ofviolence. The West has already gone

through a long history governed byrevelation. Contemporary Westernersbetter understand history as they have beenfor more than two thousand years underthe influence of Gospels.

Jesus does not die for the sacrifice, butagainst all sacrifices. Listening to Godswords, Jesus reaches to a human perfectionwhich is one with divinity, encountering

God through his love. Until Jesus, thetranscendence of love was overwhelmed

by the transcendence of violence. Todiscover it, the victims mechanism had tobe understood, Girard shows.

All great theories of modern scienceunconsciously and partially send to

denouncing the victims process. Within auniverse where violence was revealed andthe victims mechanism no longerfunctions, people have two alternatives: letviolence go or find their end in unleashedviolence. Evangels do not require frompeople to give up imitation, but to imitate

the sole model who does not risk to turninto a fascinating model.Girards text is, in its authors own

appreciation, part of the historic processgoverned by the Evangelic text. In the endof philosophy, there is therefore possiblesome thinking assumed both as scientific,in the human beings field, and as a returnto religion. The future mimetic crisis has tobe solved with no sacrifice, Girard shows.The Logos of violence is not compatiblewith the Logos of love.


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SOREA, D.Maximus the Confessor and Ren Girard: a hermeneutic approach 261

4. Common Sense of the Two Discourses

The two discourses previouslyapproached may equally claim the status ofhermeneutic approach, on the same text,the biblical one. The search forsignificance is however undertaken inopposite directions.

Maximus the Confessors writing istheology. The discourse unfolds within theperimeter circumscribed by the dogma andshares a revelation. Ren Girards works

are anthropological. The author constructsa theory, referring to the undertakingsclose by and taking over their useful truths.The discourse, of Hegelian nature, throughthe dance of three of the mimetic desireand through the slyness with which thereason of the Evangels works the history,lies under the sign of the libertiesundertaken in the context of the

contemporary West. There is a wide detourthrough its methodic doubts and a

translation in specific language of themessage upon survival. In the name of thesame liberties, Girards text contests the

necessity for the dogmas, sending at mostto an unpretentious "Why not? Maximus

the Confessors writings assert themselvesfrom the truth of the revelation,incomprehensible through discursive andlogical knowledge. Girards writing listensto the truth-coherence.

Maximus the Confessors text placesitself in the continuation of the tradition; it

is in and for it. Ren Girards approachcomes from outside and develops againsttradition, as an alternative to the former.The perspective it builds implies a welldefined interval between the discourse andthe meta-discourse. As a matter of fact,any interpretative undertaking presupposesthis interval. Relating the discourses underdiscussion to tradition is not exhausted bythe previous specifications. On one hand,the schism should be admitted in the veryheart of the first theological discourse.

However, the instituted interval is coveredin the texts of revelation through theworkings of the Holy Spirit. In virtue ofthese workings, the texts are restoredbetween the limits of tradition. On theother hand, the theory of mimetic order,constantly named revelation by its author,may impose modifications in the HolySpirits connotations and implicitly uponHis workings. This way, the relationsexisting between the two types ofdiscourse complicate themselves.

Maximus the Confessor operates amystic interpretation of the text of theScriptures, crediting the divine wisdom.Ren Girard proposes reading the text ofthe Scriptures for deconstructing divinity.Maximus the Confessors interpretation isa complication of the text, its investmentwith significance. In the phrase textinterpretation the accent lies on

interpretation. Girards interpretationsimplifies the text. The significance is to

be retrieved within and the stress may fallon it. Maximus the Confessor enriches thetext of the Scriptures, enhancing it through

moving off from its letter. Historicalevents are parabola for the inner life; the

text is a long metaphor of the needs forself-accomplishment. Ren Girard operatesan impoverishment of the text throughmoving closer to its letter. The events aredivested of any interpretation, even theprimary one, of the Evangelists. ForMaximus the Confessor the text is

auxiliary, it is the material forexemplification. In Girards approach, thetext is an essential argument in thedemonstration. Paradoxically, crediting awriting considered of divine inspirationserves to deconstructing the idea of divineand going beyond the writing, which is itsreconsidering, praises divinity.

Between the two approaches of searchfor significance, significant operationaloppositions are marked. Despite them, thediscourses converge towards undertaking


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the same commandment, the one of love.This is a starting point in Maximus theConfessors writing, that he justifies. It isbefore any discourse, without words and inessence. In Ren Girard, love is argued forthrough discourse, it is the result of thereasoning, as it well suits any Westernapproach. The pleading for it is theconsequence of the approach, stands for itsend. The two developments of ideassupport, despite these differences ofapproach, the same necessity for love. To

the limit, which is under the theological oranthropologic cover, the developments arefunctional in the field of psychology,Maximus the Confessors confesses uponthe transformations that occur within thehermits inner life through the needstowards self-accomplishment. Girardenters with the theory upon the mimeticdesire and the victims mechanism in the

themes of social psychology.These approaches, psychological in their

essence, connect the human to divinity.They are in equal measure approachestowards the revelation of the divine

through the human, although undertaken inopposite directions: upwards in Maximus

the Confessors case, for whom the humanbeing may be divine throughself-accomplishment and downwards atRen Girard, for whom divinity is human,the transcendence is born out of hatred orlove. With the specification that the twopositions remake the much exploited

distinction Orient/Occident, that Girardsdiscourse is more complicated, itsfinalization being inevitably Gnostic andthat mimetic desire is perverted love, to thesignificances brought to light by the twointerpretative approaches there may berecognized the coincidence in the urge ofknowing, through love, the divinity, who islove.

5. Conclusions

For Heraclites, the path upwards and thepath downwards mean the same way. Hisstatement is confirmed in a spectacularmanner through the superposition in sensesof the previously discussed approaches, inthe same urge. The path from the text ofthe Scriptures to their sense may be gonethrough in two manners: throughtheological tradition and through science,in Ren Girards case, through

anthropology.For the contemporaries, the theological

approach simultaneously reveals truths thatpertain to science. Scientific approachproves convergent with tradition. The twoapproaches reciprocally completethemselves, clarifying each other. Amongthe text of the Scriptures, its meaning, thetheological tradition and science, a

hermeneutic interdependence may bepostulated.

In its name, the scientific undertaking ofthe world is a roundabout way, in virtue ofthe Western appetence for dichotomy and

doubt towards simple truths. In the nameof the same postulate the solution of the

roundabout way must be recognized for itsvalidity.

References

1. Girard, R.: Des choses caches depuisla fondation du monde (Concealed

Things since the Worlds Creation).Paris. Gallimard, 1982.2. Girard, R.: Le bouc emissaire

(Scapegoat). Paris. Gallimard, 1984.3. Filocalia (Philokalia), vol. 2. Bucharest.

Harisma, 1993.4. Filocalia (Philokalia), vol. 3. Bucharest.

Harisma, 1994.


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