Is God Violent? Mimetic Theory, Divine (Non)Violence, and the Possibility of Doing Theology

Peace-talk is incoherent because we do not have one definition of the word “peace.” Everyone has different understandings of this term, and thus we cannot help but selfishly impose our understandings of peace onto someone else’s understandings of peace. With the help of Augustine of Hippo, we underscore this issue through an analysis of disordered desire; in addition, with the help of French theorist René Girard and his theory of mimesis (which very much has an Augustinian flavor in terms of its low theological anthropology) we emphasize how humanity cannot help but disorder even the noblest of endeavors such as just peacemaking.  Therefore, this essay argues that humanity’s peace presents a mimetical trap that needs to be broken from above via a divine disruption that is simultaneously violent and nonviolent. Divine violence can spur up hope and hence can affect the way one does theology today in the *saeculum*.