The Antichrist and the Katechon: Part 2, Girard's Apocalypse

I mentioned in the last post that Peter Thiel is a follower of René Girard and connects his ideas about the Antichrist and katechon to Girard's vision of the Apocalypse.

I discussed Girard's thoughts about the Apocalypse in my most recent series about moral influence and the atonement. But a quick recap for anyone new and jumping in with this series. 

First, mimetic desire and mimetic rivalry. Humans imitate each other. When we imitate the desires of others, we come to desire the same things. This draws us into competition and rivalry. As rivalry spreads through mimetic contagion, the threat of collective violence and social dissolution grows. 

Second, archaic religion, sacred violence, and the scapegoat. Ancient religions solved the problem of mimetic rivalry by identifying a scapegoat. The violence of the group could be directed and discharged toward a single individual. The scapegoat is killed, and a collective catharsis is achieved. Over time, the power of the scapegoat to bring about peace is ritualized and mythologized. Sacrificial violence binds the community together. 

Third, the gospel unmasking of sacrificial violence. In the New Testament gospel accounts, for the first time in history, we see the dynamics of scapegoating and sacrificial violence from within, from the perspective of the innocent victim--Jesus of Nazareth. We see how communal peace is achieved through the scapegoating and killing of an innocent victim. The Gospels expose the violent and unjust roots of archaic religion and the sacred foundations of ancient civilization. Christianity calls both civilizations and individuals away from this sacrificial, scapegoating violence. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, we are saved when we stand in solidarity with those we have been victimizing. 

Fourth, the modern world and the coming apocalypse. Having had the illegitimacy of archaic religion and the catharsis provided by sacred violence exposed by the Gospels, modern society has been deprived of a release valve for its mimetic rivalry. Scapegoating still occurs, but this violence lacks sacred, universal legitimacy and therefore cannot generate the binding and unifying power archaic religion once provided. Consequently, rivalry and violence escalate. As humanity moves closer to social catastrophe and destruction, we face a stark choice: be converted or suffer the apocalypse. The book of Revelation predicts that while a few will be converted to the way of Jesus, most will reject his call and succumb to the power of the Antichrist. Armageddon is coming.

Here's some things I'd like to underline for the purposes of this series. 

What the gospel accounts provide us with is an apocalypse, an exposure and unveiling. The dynamics of history have been brought into the light. As Jesus said, things hidden from the foundation of the world have been brought into view. This unveiling provides us with moral clarity, and that clarity presents us with a choice. We can follow Jesus into the peaceable kingdom of God or walk the highway to hell. And as predicted by both Jesus and the book of Revelation, most people will walk the road to doom. As Jesus says (NLT translation): "The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it."

In this view, the gospel "saves" us by providing us a clear view and a clear choice. That choice is now up to us.  And this is, by the way, why I describe Girard's theory as a moral influence view of the atonement. Salvation is a choice we make.

In the conclusion of his book I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, Girard reflects upon Jesus' statement in the gospels, "I see satan fall like lightning from heaven." As we've described above, divine and heavenly legitimacy has been stripped away from justifying satanic, scapegoating violence. Satan has been thrown out of heaven. And yet, as Girard observes, while thrown out of heaven Satan now prowls the earth. Scapegoating violence continues but the sacrificial mechanisms that once corralled and channeled this violence have been dismantled. And this creates a new set of problems. Girard:

By revealing the secret of the prince of this world, the Passion accounts subvert the primordial source of human order. The darkness of Satan is no longer thick enough to conceal the innocence of victims who become, at the same time, less and less "cathartic." It is no longer possible really to "purge" or "purify" communities of their violence. Satan can no longer expel Satan. We should not conclude from this that humans are going to be immediately rid of their now fallen prince.

In the Gospel of Luke Christ sees Satan "fall like lightning from heaven" (10:18). Evidently he falls to earth, and he will not remain inactive. Jesus does not announce the immediate end of Satan, not yet at least. It is rather the end of his false transcendence, his power to restore order through his false transcendence, the end of scapegoating...

Christianity expands the range of human freedom, which individuals and communities make use of as they please, sometimes in a good way but often in a bad way. A bad use of freedom contradicts, of course, what Jesus intends for humanity. But if God did not respect the freedom of human beings, if he imposed his will on them by force or even by his prestige, which would mean by mimetic contagion, then he would not be different from Satan.

Jesus is not the one who rejects the kingdom of God; it's human beings who do so...

So, with Satan now prowling the earth and humans increasingly misusing their freedom what is keeping the satanic escalation at bay? What is holding back the final arrival of the Antichrist?

Here Girard turns to make one of his few references to the image of the katechon in 2 Thessalonians. Girard:

What delays the "unbinding of Satan"? St. Paul, in the letter to the Thessalonians, defines it as a katechon, as that which constrains the Apocalypse in the twofold sense of the word as noted by J.P. Dupuy: to have within itself and to hold within certain limits. This "containing" is made up of a set of qualities that contradict one another, and in particular the force stemming from the inertia of the powers of this world, their inability to understand the Revelation of Christ in spite of their worldly intelligence and adaptability. 

In his work Girard did not discuss the katechon at length, but here he gestures toward the idea before turning toward his favored approach to address the threat of societal violence: the non-violent way of Jesus. Girard prefers conversion over the katechon. Regardless, Girard acknowledges that "the powers of the world," through their contradictory inertia, can delay societal collapse. These powers, however, lack an understanding of the Gospels and, while they may postpone the Apocalypse, they cannot prevent its eventual arrival. 

In making this point about the katechon in I See Satan Fall Like Lightning Girard footnotes the work of Wolfgang Palaver. In the Wired article I cited in the last post, Palaver is presented as a rival to Peter Thiel, albeit a respectful and friendly one, in how best to interpret Girard on the Apocalypse. Palaver is with Girard in calling for conversion to the way of Jesus. Thiel, by contrast, is more interested in the katechon. (More precisely, Thiel is concerned with how the Antichrist will put the katechon to satanic use. But that's getting ahead of ourselves...) For the purposes of this series, Palaver was one of the thinkers who elevated the idea of the katechon in Girardian studies. 

We'll turn to his work next.