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Human Rights in Crisis: Is There No Answer to Human Violence?

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Human Rights in Crisis: Is There No Answer to Human Violence? HUMAN RIGHTS IN CRISIS: IS THERE NO ANSWER TO HUMAN VIOLENCE? A Cultural Critique in Conversation with René Girard and Raymund Schwager Submitted by Peter Robert Stork, M.Eng. (Germany), M.A. (theol). A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Theology Sub-Faculty of Philosophy and Theology Australian Catholic University Research Services Locked Bag 4115 Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 Australia 30 April 2006 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP AND SOURCES This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. The foundations of Chapters 5 and 7 were laid during my MA (theol) project; otherwise this thesis does not contain material of a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. Portions of Chapter 5 have been previously published in the Conference Proceedings of the COV&R Conference of July 2005 under the title “The Representational and Doxological Ground of Human Mimesis”. To the best of my knowledge and belief, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis. Peter Stork 30 April 2006 ii ABSTRACT The study attempts to bring together the mimetic theory of René Girard and the theology of Raymund Schwager to address questions inherent in the contemporary notion of human rights. The impetus derives from the phenomenon of human violence, the universal presence of which points to a problematic that seems to defy conventional explanations and political solutions. In dialogue with Girard and Schwager, the project seeks to shed light on the causes not only of the apparent fragility of the human rights system, but also of the persistence with which large-scale human rights violations recur despite the proliferation of human rights norms. It argues that the human rights crisis is neither an accident nor a shortfall in techniques of implementation, but reflects the subconscious and collective structure of civilization. Following a description of the crisis, this investigation examines the nature of human violence, especially the contagious manner in which it works at the root of the crisis, offering understanding where conventional anthropological reflections fall short. The study argues with Girard that vengeance and retribution resonate deeply with the human psyche and easily evoke an archaic image of the divine. While this arouses moral protest in the post-modern mind, we meet here one of the fundamental issues mimetic theory elucidates, namely that it is on account of such an unconscious image of the “sacred” that vengeful violence has remained for so long a determining element in human history. In a theological key, the study presents human mimesis as a divinely constituted structure that makes possible divine/human intimacy and reciprocity. However, this exalted capacity is perverted. Human sin casts God into the image of an envious rival which corrupts the personal and structural dimensions of human sociality of which the so-called “human rights crisis” is but a contemporary manifestation. What rules the social order is not the true image of God but a resentful human projection that deceptively demands victims in exchange for peace and security. Thus “mimetic victimage” is the essential clue to the fallenness of nations and their institutions, including the institution of human rights, as well as to the iii fallenness of individuals in their profound alienation from God, from themselves and from one another. Nonetheless, mimesis is also a structure of hope and transcendent longing. So understood, it opens the way to a profound and practical appropriation of the meaning of Christ as the restoration of the image of God in humanity whereby rivalistic resentment, the epicenter of the human predicament, is undone through forgiveness. While there is an enabling aspect to violence when it restrains and coerces us for our benefit as we rightly fear the greater violence that might ensue in its absence, the study also argues that because mimetic human agents carry out the “deed of the law”, the human rights system cannot overcome the mimetic impulse. As a judicial system, human rights belong structurally to the same order as the system they seek to correct. This ambiguity takes on special significance in the “age of annihilation”. For the first time in history limitless violence has become feasible through weapons capable of planetary destruction so that humanity not only faces its own complicity with violence, but also the relative powerlessness of the human rights project to keep its mimetic escalation in check. This raises the central question of the study. If the institution of human rights cannot offer a rigorous critique of structural violence, let alone free humanity from complicity with it, where shall the world place its hope for a more humane future? It concludes that such a hope is not to be found in the proliferation of rights norms and their enforcement but in the transformation of human desire through the restoration of the true image of God as revealed in the Christ-event. This revelation judges as futile all attempts at human sociality that retain violence as their hidden core. Thus God’s freedom granting action in history is both revelatory and “political”: in its prophetic stance against the powers of human sin and domination, it calls humanity to its true vocation to be the image of God grounded in a new pacific mimesis that resonates freely and unflinchingly with the self-giving love of God in Christ. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research and writing of this thesis, although at times a demanding and solitary journey, has been made possible because others have provided expert guidance, encouragement and help. To all who have supported this project I gladly acknowledge my debt and express my gratitude. My special thanks go to Professor Anthony Kelly, CSSR, STL, DTheol (Anselmianum) and Associate Professor Raymond Canning, LicPh, STB (Greg), PhD, STD (Leuven), my academic supervisors, for their unfailing encouragement, stimulus, clarity, gentle yet rigorous critique, and generous editorial suggestions. I also thank Professor Wolfgang Palaver, acting head of the Institute for Systematic Theology at Innsbruck University, for a stimulating conversation in the summer of 2004. Dr. Stewart J. Sharlow and Dr. Boonseng Leelarthaepin of the Research Office of the Australian Catholic University have contributed with encouragement and support; likewise management and staff of the ACU Library at Signadou. Their gracious and generous help is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are due to Jacqueline Smith. I am grateful to the library staff of the University of Innsbruck who went out of their way to make an all-too brief visit most profitable. My thanks also go to the library staff of the National Theological Centre at St. Marks, Canberra, for their ready help. Bruce A. Stevens, Ph.D., FACCP, MAPS (Forensic), enthusiastic supporter and stimulating conversation partner, has read most of a penultimate version and made valuable comments. Janelle Caiger, B.A., M.A., B.D., M.Th. greatly assisted with proofreading. Lastly, I want to express my deep gratitude to my family in Australia and overseas: to Giselher and Hildegard Doderer for making the journey to Europe possible and for providing access to German texts; to my children, their spouses and my grandchildren for cheering me on; but particularly to my wife, Elsbeth, for her constant love, prayers and encouragement. All this invaluable help has given shape to the project, but of course I take responsibility for its shortcomings. v CONTENTS TITLE PAGE . i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP AND SOURCES . ii ABSTRACT . iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . v Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 Preamble Context The Global Situation Human Rights: Promise and Incapacity The Research Problem Issues and Aims On Method Clarification of Terms Brief Description of the Project The Reference Authors René Girard Raymund Schwager Theses and Contribution Limits Outline of Chapters Summary 2. CONTOURS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS . 25 Introduction Human Rights: Concept and Controversies Historical/Philosophical Trajectory Political Significance Conceptualizing Human Rights The Human Rights Regime History Regional Systems Emerging Actors vi International Duplicity Games Nations Play Arsenals of Annihilation War and Weapons Trade Promises Betrayed Mounting Threats International Terrorism Micro-Nationalism versus the Nation State Demographic Change Conclusion 3. VIOLENCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE . 71 Introduction Violence in Anthropological Perspective Semantic Considerations The Nature/Nurture Debate The Problem of Cultural Relativism Three Anthropologies of Violence Considered The Social Resource Theory The Hunting Hypothesis of Walter Burkert The Mimetic Theory of René Girard Girard’s Mimetic Anthropology The Trajectory of Girard’s Thought Main Features and Implications Typical Criticisms Girard and the Judeo-Christian Tradition Differentiating Myths and Judeo-Christian Revelation Mimetic Theory and Historical Christianity Conclusion Why Conventional Models Fail Ontological “Sickness” at the Root of Human Violence 4. HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES IN GIRARDIAN PERSPECTIVE . 112 Introduction The Text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Text in Context Flawed Justice, Deceit and Desire Angst over Sovereignty and the Misuse of the UDHR Trafficking in Trauma: The Human Rights Market Globalization, Envy and Élites Terrorism: Icon of Resentment The Fateful
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