Maximus the confessor and René Girard: a hermeneutic approach

Abstract

For Maximus the Confessor, the Holy Scriptures is a guide for the ascetic ascension and the commandment to imitate the Lord means love. For R. Girard, Christ’s passions take down the resorts of the victim’s mechanism, signaling the mimetic functioning of culture and the false sacredness instituted by violence. In the hermeneutic approach, the two discourses unveil their similitude, proving alternative paths from the text of the Scriptures to their significance.