Raymund Schwager Awards
J. Columcille Dever: Envy Loves to Hide: Chrysostom Unmasking Envy on Cain’s Fallen Face, Our Fallen Nature I argue that John Chrysostom’s account of the role of envy in his interpretation of the narrative of Cain and Abel is deepened and clarified by René Girard’s mimetic theory, which understands envy as primarily directed against the rivalrous other, who frustrates the desire of the envious subject for some limited good. I begin with a philosophical account of envy derived from Aristotle’s treatise On Rhetoric in concert with Girard’s mimetic theory, in order to disclose their complementarity, especially with respect to what Girard refers to the as the triangular structure of desire. Next, I offer a general picture of roughly contemporary Greek and Syriac Christian interpretations of the narrative of Cain and Abel, as well as those of Jewish exegetes, highlighting the uniqueness of Chrysostom’s emphasis on envy as the root of Cain’s murder. Although other Christians and Jews acknowledge the specter of envy haunting the narrative, none emphasize the primacy of envy in the manner of Chrysostom. Chrysostom articulates this primacy in the course of his Homilies on Genesis in order to show how central aspects of Girard’s theory illuminate Chrysostom’s sophisticated unmasking of Cain’s envy in the narrative. Chrysostom’s unmasking of Cain’s envy in the Homilies might be read as a therapeutic strategy for mollifying the passion of envy latent in the hearts of his congregation. Chrysostom argues that concrete practices of confession and gratitude, detachment and almsgiving encourage the gradual transformation of one’s vision, enabling one to see limited goods in light of God’s unlimited goodness and would-be rivals as friends in Christ. Domèbèimwin Vivien Somda: Immigration: changing tragedy into drama according to René Girard and Raymund Schwager While the fate of illegal immigrants who frequently got drown in the Mediterranean sea has only occasionally moved the world, the populist campaign of President Donald Trump who wants to build a wall on the border with Mexico and especially the massive influx of refugees in Europe in summer 2015 have imposed immigration as a major theme of social and political debates in the host countries. Meanwhile men and women, adults and children continue to suffer and are forced to abandon everything and commit themselves in a dangerous adventure, without being sure of getting a pleasant welcome. Western countries manage henceforth to combine the rights of migrants on one hand and the security and prosperity of their inhabitants on the other. In Europe, many are certainly shocked by the wall project of the candidate and then the US president Trump, but hardly anybody disagrees with the “wall” that the European Union has erected in Turkey and on the coasts of Maghreb and which is effective enough to hold back and dissuade migrants from migrating to Europe. Based on René Girard’s mimetic theory and Raymund Schwager’s dramatic method, this contribution which is interested above all in immigration from Africa to Europe seeks to deal with the issue of immigration from a new point of view in the hope of identifying the root causes and proposing appropriate solutions. Iván Camilo Vargas Castro: Border citizenships: Identities and hospitality in times of crisis This paper approaches the relations between identities and citizenships in border territories, specifically when one of the countries of the border is in state of crisis. Borders are understood not as lines with radical differences between both sides, but as territories with social and symbolic rules that allow coexistence around them and, in many cases, question the standards instituted by the States. In second place, this article points out the difference between identity and citizenship. In those territories, border identities are stronger than national citizenships. However, there are disruptive actions of civil society that allow immigrants (the non-citizens) to participate in local dynamics with an effective social and economic integration that can be understood as “border citizenships”. This paper focuses in the Catatumbo region, a territory close to the border between Colombia and Venezuela. This is a region with a weak presence of the State, a permanent armed conflict and illegal economic activities as coca plantations that provide job for the Venezuelan migrants, but it is also a region with communities with a strong and resilient social fabric. The self-regulation mechanisms of communities let immigrants participate within social and economic opportunities and protect them from the risk of victimization. Here the communitarian order helps build a way of an alternative citizenship. Chair: Jeremiah Alberg
J. Columcille Dever: Envy Loves to Hide: Chrysostom Unmasking Envy on Cain’s Fallen Face, Our Fallen Nature I argue that John Chrysostom’s account of the role of envy in his interpretation of the narrative of Cain and Abel is deepened and clarified by René Girard’s mimetic theory, which understands envy as primarily directed against the rivalrous other, who frustrates the desire of the envious subject for some limited good. I begin with a philosophical account of envy derived from Aristotle’s treatise On Rhetoric in concert with Girard’s mimetic theory, in order to disclose their complementarity, especially with respect to what Girard refers to the as the triangular structure of desire. Next, I offer a general picture of roughly contemporary Greek and Syriac Christian interpretations of the narrative of Cain and Abel, as well as those of Jewish exegetes, highlighting the uniqueness of Chrysostom’s emphasis on envy as the root of Cain’s murder. Although other Christians and Jews acknowledge the specter of envy haunting the narrative, none emphasize the primacy of envy in the manner of Chrysostom. Chrysostom articulates this primacy in the course of his Homilies on Genesis in order to show how central aspects of Girard’s theory illuminate Chrysostom’s sophisticated unmasking of Cain’s envy in the narrative. Chrysostom’s unmasking of Cain’s envy in the Homilies might be read as a therapeutic strategy for mollifying the passion of envy latent in the hearts of his congregation. Chrysostom argues that concrete practices of confession and gratitude, detachment and almsgiving encourage the gradual transformation of one’s vision, enabling one to see limited goods in light of God’s unlimited goodness and would-be rivals as friends in Christ. Domèbèimwin Vivien Somda: Immigration: changing tragedy into drama according to René Girard and Raymund Schwager While the fate of illegal immigrants who frequently got drown in the Mediterranean sea has only occasionally moved the world, the populist campaign of President Donald Trump who wants to build a wall on the border with Mexico and especially the massive influx of refugees in Europe in summer 2015 have imposed immigration as a major theme of social and political debates in the host countries. Meanwhile men and women, adults and children continue to suffer and are forced to abandon everything and commit themselves in a dangerous adventure, without being sure of getting a pleasant welcome. Western countries manage henceforth to combine the rights of migrants on one hand and the security and prosperity of their inhabitants on the other. In Europe, many are certainly shocked by the wall project of the candidate and then the US president Trump, but hardly anybody disagrees with the “wall” that the European Union has erected in Turkey and on the coasts of Maghreb and which is effective enough to hold back and dissuade migrants from migrating to Europe. Based on René Girard’s mimetic theory and Raymund Schwager’s dramatic method, this contribution which is interested above all in immigration from Africa to Europe seeks to deal with the issue of immigration from a new point of view in the hope of identifying the root causes and proposing appropriate solutions. Iván Camilo Vargas Castro: Border citizenships: Identities and hospitality in times of crisis This paper approaches the relations between identities and citizenships in border territories, specifically when one of the countries of the border is in state of crisis. Borders are understood not as lines with radical differences between both sides, but as territories with social and symbolic rules that allow coexistence around them and, in many cases, question the standards instituted by the States. In second place, this article points out the difference between identity and citizenship. In those territories, border identities are stronger than national citizenships. However, there are disruptive actions of civil society that allow immigrants (the non-citizens) to participate in local dynamics with an effective social and economic integration that can be understood as “border citizenships”. This paper focuses in the Catatumbo region, a territory close to the border between Colombia and Venezuela. This is a region with a weak presence of the State, a permanent armed conflict and illegal economic activities as coca plantations that provide job for the Venezuelan migrants, but it is also a region with communities with a strong and resilient social fabric. The self-regulation mechanisms of communities let immigrants participate within social and economic opportunities and protect them from the risk of victimization. Here the communitarian order helps build a way of an alternative citizenship. Chair: Jeremiah Alberg