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Wolfgang Palaver

The Ambiguous Cachet of Victimhood. Elias Canetti's "Religions of Lament" and their Roots in Abrahamic Monotheism

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Abstract

"Lamentations are simply the need to constantly irritate the wound."

(Fyodor Dostoevsky)

The increase of religiously motivated violence in our contemporary world – especially religiously motivated terrorism – has revived an old charge against all monotheistic religions that are today again accused of causing violent conflicts. 

In order to evaluate this currently fashionable critique of monotheism my paper will discuss Elias Canetti's concept of the "religions of lament" in the framework of René Girard's mimetic theory. By this I will first sharpen our understanding of the difference between pagan religions and Abrahamic monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). It is the overcoming of human sacrifices and the disclosure of the scapegoat mechanism that marks the end of paganism in this tradition and applies to all three monotheistic religions. 

Following this thread we discover the emergence of modern individuality and human rights as a result of the monotheistic legacy. This overcoming of the pagan sacred, however, is not without its own dangers. Abrahamic monotheism easily perverts into a form of lament that inspires a vitriolic form of violence unknown to the pagan world. It is therefore not only the root of modern human rights and our contemporary concern for victims but also a possible source of resentment abusing the perspective of the victim. 

According to Canetti, a lamenting pack changes easily into a war pack. The temptation coming along with lamenting a persecuted victim is that it quickly legitimizes without much doubts violent resistance and even acts of revenge. Our world of today is full of victims turning into perpetrators. It is especially for this reason that the role of the victim has become so attractive and dangerous at the same time (cf. C. Taylor; G. Mak). From the perspective of mimetic theory this is the reign of the Antichrist, in which fighting persecution leads to even more cruel acts of persecution. 

A final question therefore has to ask what kind of help we can find in the Abrahamic tradition to overcome this dangerous threat.

Literature

Canetti, Elias. 1973. Crowds and Power. Translated from the German by C. Stewart. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. 1991. The Brothers Karamazov. Translated and Annotated by R. Pevear and L. Volokhonsky. New York: Vintage Books.

Girard, René. 1977. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by P. Gregory. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

——. 1999. "Violence in Biblical Narrative." In: Philosophy and Literature 23.2, 387-392.

——. 2001. I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. Translated, with a Foreword, by J. G. Williams. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

——. 2004. "Violence and Religion: Cause or Effect?" In: The Hedgehog Review 6/1, 8-20.

Mak, Geert. 2005. Der Mord an Theo van Gogh. Geschichte einer moralischen Panik. Aus dem Niederländishen von M. Müller-Haas. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Taylor, Charles. 2004. "Notes on the Sources of Violence: Perennial and Modern." In: Beyond Violence: Religious Sources for Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Edited by J. L. Heft. Ashland: Fordham University Press, 15-42.