Dr. Wolfgang Palaver is a distinguished scholar in the field of political theology, christian social thought and the philosophy of René Girard. From 2002 to 2023 Dr. Palaver was professor of Christian Social Thought in the Institute of Systematic Theology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His research focuses on the intersection of religion, politics, and violence, drawing extensively from Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory. He has authored a number of books and articles, exploring themes such as sacrifice, modernity, and mimetic desire. In specific, Dr. Palaver is the author of the comprehensive synthesis of Girardian Mimetic Theory entitled "Rene Girard’s Mimetic Theory". Dr. Palaver currently teaches part time at the University of Brixen-Bressanone, Italy.

Dr. Palaver's work provides critical insights into the underlying mechanisms of human conflict and the potential for transcendence through understanding mimetic desires.

In this conversation, Dr. Palaver & Robert discuss:

0:00 - Introduction

2:30 - Three pillars of mimetic theory

5:07 - Where does violence come from?

7:51 - Imitation and mimeses

12:45 - Reasons we imitate the desires of others, Sartre's Being & Non-being

14:21 - The resolution to mimetic crisis, origin of the scapegoat

15:59 - The scapegoat becomes the sacred

18:49 - Primitive cultures, mimesis, Levi Strauss

25:33 - Modernity redirecting mimetic desire, convergence, fashion and mimetics

29:55 - Sacralization process, static, dynamic religious & mysticism

38:16 - Sacred & mythology, timeless cultures, ritual rites

43:31 - Conversion, biblical revelations as a revelation of scapegoating

49:50 - How does Conversion happen?

57:10 - Girard & Conversion found in the great writers

1:03:46 - Solving Sartre's problem of being through imitation ?

1:08:51 - The problem of desire and mimetics - bridging mimetic theory and world religions?

1:15:35 - Meditation upon and dissolution of the self

More about Dr. Palaver

https://uibk.academia.edu/WolfgangPalaver

https://twitter.com/wolfgangpalaver