Violence, Mysticism, and Rene Girard

Blending the science of acknowledged mysticsDostoevsky, Weil, Peguy, Pascal, Holderlin, and Augustinewith the insights of social scientists over the course of a long and distinguished career, Rene Girard contributed to an understanding of the mysticism of social life through focusing attention principally on the ersatz mysticism of metaphysical desire and mob behavior, but also on the interdividual's contrastive experience of Christ's innermost mediation of grace for conversion and charitable work in the world.