As the world wrestles with how to respond to the use of chemical
weapons against civilians in Syria, we thought we’d offer you some
mimetic reflections on the use of violence. Mimetic theory is an
anthropological theory of human violence that has theological
implications. The reflections in this article are from friends of ours
who are guided by the mimetic insight about violence in their work as
preachers, teachers, bloggers, film producers, activists and civilian
peacekeepers.
What is the mimetic insight about violence? What you will observe in
their comments and prayers are two basic insights: (1) that violence
creates more violence as adversaries become mirror images or doubles of
each other and (2) Jesus came to shake our faith in violence as a means
to achieve peace. Jesus knew that we have persistently and to our own
detriment relied on violence to keep the peace, and that in so doing
good people lose our claim to being any better than our adversaries.
