Theology and Peace -- Home

For years I had been struck by the fact that many passages in the Bible, in both Old Testament and New, showed God going out of his way to forgive and save. God even lets himself be talked out of the violence he seems to intend at some points! In Hosea God expresses anguish at contemplating the judgment of Israel. God seemed in many cases to be a reluctant judge, a judge looking for an opportunity to forgive, to let off the hook. Jonah was a book that challenged me to rethink God’s willingness, even eagerness to forgive. The angry and reluctant prophet expressed frustration that his enemies were to emerge unscathed from God’s prophetic warning. How were these passages to be placed alongside places where God seemed ready, even eager to judge violently? The cross of Jesus also seemed to point to a God who looked for ways to forgive us, to remove our sin, and to restore us rather than judge us. But the cross also troubled me. It seemed that many theologians wanted to separate God from Jesus. Good and kind Jesus stood between us and angry and hateful God. But this was clearly not what the New Testament really taught. “God was in Christ,” Paul told the Corinthians, “reconciling the world to himself.” You could not separate the Son from the Father. For me, the old, violent atonement theories did not fit the data. When I discovered Rene Girard’s work I was provided with a new set of lenses, a new theory, that made sense of the confusing data and provided richly rewarding insights on the gospel. These insights continue to emerge to my delight and joy. They give me new hope for renewal of God’s creation through a gospel of peace and non-violence.

We heard stimulating presentations on mimetic theory and peace related to the Bible, spiritual theology and Christian community, and then engaged in provocative dialogue with the speakers and in small groups. We shared prayer and worship, meals and social time where we continued to explore our mission of transformation of the North American Church.

In his talk "What Sorts of Difference Does Rene Girard Make to How We Read the Bible?" theologian James Alison suggested that mimetic theory reveals the freedom with which Jesus approached biblical texts and invites us to do the same. Alison's talk is available at www.jamesalison.co.uk/

Andrew Marr, OSB, outlined what a spirituality rooted in imitation of God's desire for us might look like, as well as some distortions mimetic rivalry can bring to Christian spirituality in his talk "Living by the Breath of God: A Spirituality of God's Desire." The paper is available at http://www.andrewmarr.homestead.com/

Talking on "The Third Leg of Revelation: Semiotic Re-birth", Tony Bartlett looked at language and culture through the lens of mimetic theory and posed some questions about what it might mean to be church in today's world given that human culture now lives "under the sign" of Christ. Bartlett's paper is at http://www.theologyandpeace.org/Bartlett_TP09.pdf

Evaluations of the 2009 Theology and Peace Conference included comments such as:

"profound and exciting thought from articulate speakers"
"nice interactive process among committed disciples"
"appreciated inclusion of silence and contemplative time"
"really enjoyed the informal sharing time and meal time -- great conversation"
"nice balance of intellectual and social time"
"enjoyed meeting new people with similar interests and widely diverse experience"
"it was profound to share in worship with Girardian friends"

We hope you'll join us in 2010 and see for yourself what a Theology and Peace Conference has to offer!