According to Stanford University news, noted french philosopher René Girard has died, aged 91 years.
René Girard was one of the leading thinkers of our era – a provocative sage who bypassed prevailing orthodoxies and “isms” to offer a bold, sweeping vision of human nature, human history and human destiny.
French theorist René Girard was one of the leading thinkers of our era, a faculty member at Stanford since 1981 and one of the immortels of the Académie Française.
The renowned Stanford French professor, one of the 40 immortels of the prestigious Académie Française, died at his Stanford home on Nov. 4 at the age of 91, after long illness.
Fellow immortel and Stanford Professor Michel Serres once dubbed him “the new Darwin of the human sciences.” The author who began as a literary theorist was fascinated by everything. History, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, psychology and theology all figured in his oeuvre.
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Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World: Professor Girard rent the curtain human motivation with astonishing courage and imagination. In my estimation, he stands along side others paradigm changers like Einstein, Darwin, Freud and Galileo.
I was captured by his theology, initially, through reading the work of his disciple, James Alison. Girard and Alison helped me understand why I eventually came to Christianity.
No doubt, there have been some very heavy theological conversations since Professor Girard entered Heaven Likewise, many of his questions can now be answered.
Here is a link to an article in Le Monde, one with additional detail about his work.
http://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2015/11/05/l-anthropologue-et-academicien-francais-rene-girard-est-mort_4803285_3260.html#
I heard him as a faculty member of the Senate at the University of St Andrews, where he spoke on the occasion of 2000. It was a very strange effect. To many he sounded like a bible preacher, as he rehearsed the main lines of the Gospel so as to make his point. And yet he thought of himself as a philosopher and an intellectual, which he undoubtably was/is. A very generous spirit, and good English. He was the speaker after Paul Ricoeur and far more engaging. God grant him eternal rest.
I have come to disagree with some of his basic theses, but his intellectual work made a significant impact on me.
His theoretical critique of violence, imitation, and what it means to “love the neighbor” will be touchstones for many.
Rest in Peace, M. Girard.