Grant Kaplan is professor of theology at Saint Louis University. He is the author of a number of books, including Answering the Enlightenment: The Catholic Recovery of Historical Revelation.
"This book is a welcome, intelligent engagement with the work of
René Girard and the Catholic discipline of fundamental theology.
The author also brings in a plethora of other interlocuters, thus
further enriching the study." —Pro Ecclesia
"The most comprehensive overview yet of Girard’s theory, as it
relates to philosophical or fundamental theology." —Irish
Theological Quarterly
"Grant Kaplan has done the field a great service by systematizing
the often nonsystematic thought of René Girard and deftly answering
critiques of Girard's work (from John Milbank to Sarah Coakley)
along the way." —Horizons
“The real gift of Kaplan’s book consists in showing that, with
man’s enlarged brain, reciprocity (rather than autonomy) and ‘mind
melding’ became exponentially more advanced in humans over animals
– especially in the initial oral cultures. This means all learning
involves a ‘conversion,’ and that the disinterested Enlightenment
variation (based on print) is a late development and aberrant
ideal.” —The Heythrop Journal
“Kaplan . . . argues that Girard was a Christian theologian, in the
broad sense, and that through a careful examination of his writings
one can understand him as a contributor to fundamental theology and
an effective apologist or defender of the faith. Specifically, his
mimetic theory successfully refutes many of the arguments against
Christianity from such figures as Nietzsche and the new atheists.
This is a helpful addition to the literature on Girard,.”
—Choice
"One key aspect of [Girard’s] thought that is clearly ambiguous is
the sense of whether he writes, or does not write, as a Christian
thinker. Author Grant Kaplan wades directly into this thicket of
claims and attempts to sort out the issues involved more clearly
than Girard ever did himself. He succeeds admirably, writing a
thorough and engaging book that treats the question of Girard’s
religious presuppositions, and many other topics related to
Kaplan’s own area of expertise: Catholic fundamental theology."
—Reading Religion
"There are many reasons why this book comes to us not a moment too
soon. First among these must be the fact that, despite the almost
ever-present violence that takes place on our streets and in our
world today, we are seemingly as incapable of effectively dealing
with violence and scapegoating as ever, and the reason for this
failure seems to be a structural one as much as it is also, always,
personal in nature. Girard’s work offers theologians the chance to
say something significant to this perpetually frustrating context
in a way that can be permanently transformative, renewing hearts
and minds through faith in a source of grace that lies beyond the
mechanisms and oppressive institutions that continue to shape how a
politics of scapegoating carries on most days. . . . It is an
immense gift that Kaplan has given us with his latest work."
—America
"With clarity and erudition, Grant Kaplan has demonstrated the
theological fecundity of Girard’s thought. Kaplan opens up the
dialogue to include major themes in fundamental theology, attending
to how Girard’s insights into mimesis and the scapegoat mechanism
shed new light on traditional questions. A welcome addition to a
growing body of Girardian theological literature." —Neil Ormerod,
Australian Catholic University
"This is a promising and original book advancing the discussion of
Girard and theology. It exemplifies today's growing appreciation of
Girard's work as having become more intentionally theological,
rather than purely social scientific and objective. The discussion
of reason and revelation cast in a hermeneutical key is perhaps the
book's strongest exploration of this complementarity in Girard,
between rational objectivity and the necessity of conversion."
—Scott Cowdell, author of René Girard and Secular Modernity:
Christ, Culture, and Crisis
"In this pathbreaking book, Grant Kaplan provides a theoretical
framework for understanding René Girard as a particular kind of
theologian, a Christian apologist in an age of unbelief whose
anthropological explorations necessarily entail a theological
horizon and verge upon fundamental theological questions. Reading
the Girardian literary corpus broadly, Kaplan calls attention to
modifications of, and developments within, Girard’s mimetic theory
across time, as the French thinker attended to the constructive
critiques of such theologians as Raymund Schwager and Hans Urs von
Balthasar. Girard’s apologetic response to theologians and his
appeal to them as co-investigators, Kaplan argues, have had a
transformative effect upon theology itself as a discipline,
reminding it of its own most fundamental concerns: sin, grace,
conversion, revelation. Highly recommended." —Ann W. Astell,
University of Notre Dame
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