Apocalypse Deferred

Jeremiah L. Alberg is professor of philosophy and religion at International Christian University, Tokyo. He is the author of a number of books, including Beneath the Veil of the Strange Verses: Reading Scandalous Texts.

"This is the first major interdisciplinary response to Girard's apocalyptic-themed late work Achever Clausewitz. The Japanese cultural material explored here not only reveals evidence for aspects of the mimetic theory from folk history, literature, theatre, and popular culture (e.g., anime), but from a non-Western nation it raises the question of necessary Judeo-Christian input into the revealing of scapegoating dynamics." —Scott Cowdell, Charles Sturt University, Canberra, Australia"Rather than a compendium of essays, this book comprises an entire curriculum for rethinking our understanding of religion and scientific rationality and everything in between, including and especially the looming prospect of planetary catastrophe. Through the lens of René Girard's mimetic anthropology, the essays in this volume by scholars on both sides of the Pacific range from issues in geopolitics to folk customs, from biblical exegesis to Japanese film, anime, and manga. Abounding with stunning insights into the explanatory scope of Girard's ideas, every contribution is cogently argued and abundantly researched. It delights the intellect, stretching its potential; it collectively provides an urgently needed epistemology for the role of violence in our globally challenging controversies." —Andrew J. McKenna, emeritus professor of French, Loyola University Chicago"While readers from diverse fields will find specific chapters—the atomic bombings, folk rituals, anime, popular film—of interest, this reviewer suspects every reader will find something new—and quite possibly challenging or rewarding—in this collection. By extending Girard's mimetic theory to Japan, these essays demonstrate its usefulness and validity in non-Judeo-Christian contexts." —Reading Religion"[A] compendium of essays in which religion and scientific rationality intertwines with folk history, literature, theatre, biblical exegesis, and Japanese film, anime, and manga characters. . . . [I]n Apocalypse Deferred: Girard and Japan, the sense of an inevitable nuclear confrontation is taken seriously by the pool of international scholars." —Catholic Library World

• AcknowledgmentsA Light Shall Appear in the East: An Introduction to This Volume by Jeremiah L. AlbertPart 1. Catastrophe, Apocalypse, and Japan1. The Nuclear Menace—A New Sacrament for Humanity: Catastrophes and Near Misses by Jean-Pierre Dupuy2. World War II and the Victimary Era by Eric Gans.3. Undifferentiation Reconsidered by Anthony D. Taylor4. A Reading of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki-Urakami with Nagai and Girard by Yoko Irie FayollePart 2. Mimetic Theory and Japanese Culture5. Girardian Structure and Dionysian Components by Shoichiro Iwakiri6. The Sacrifice of the Mediator: The Murder on Gifu's Sugou Plateau and Folk Performing Art by Mizuho Kawasaki7. Decadence and Conversion: On the Thought of Ango Sakaguchi by Kunio Nakahata8. Living in a State of Abandonment: The Anime Vexille's Supplementary Apocalypse by Andreas Oberprantacher9. Subculture, Conformity, and Sacrifice: Kamikaze Girls through a Mimetic Lens by Matthew TaylorPart 3 . Mimetic Theory and Theology10. Back to the Future: The Prophetic and the Apocalyptic in Jewish and Christian Settings by Sandor Goodhart11. Reading the Antichrist Type: Christian Apocalyptic Typology and Girardian Mimesis by Thomas Ryba12. The Place of Mimesis and the Apocalyptic: Toward a Topology of the "Far and Near," or Is René Girard a Postmodernist? By Richard SchenkConclusion13. The Drum, the Gaita, and the Desert: Thoughts on How to Approach Conflicts with Mimetic Theory by Mario Roberto Solarte Rodríguez and Mery Edith Rodríguez AriasList of ContributorsIndex