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Mimetic Theory Meets The Oxford Inklings: Girard, Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, And Barfield, Curtis Gruenler

Faculty Presentations

What might the authors known as the Oxford Inklings (J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield) have thought about René Girard’s mimetic theory, if they had had a chance to encounter it? All are among the most prominent Christian literary thinkers of the past century, but in the case of the topic of myth, one that is important to all of them, they take what seem like opposite views. This talk begins with the criticisms the Inklings might have of the anthropological orientation of mimetic theory because of their interest in lively representations of the …