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One of the most influential 20th century Catholic thinkers, René Girard transformed our understanding of culture, religion, and human behavior. His “mimetic theory” builds on the demystifying power of the Old and New Testaments to illuminate the religious history of mankind. Through an intensive reading of his more accessible works, in conjunction with the fiction of the greatest writers, this five-day seminar will explore Girard’s key insights into imitation, conflict, and scapegoating, connecting them to central themes of Christian theology.
Location and Format:
This seminar will be held at University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
There will be two 2.5-hour sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, the morning session will be followed by a post-lunch excursion. Each session will a seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully, submit study questions in advance, and participate actively in each session.
Application Information
This seminar is open to all undergraduate students (including 2025 graduates) interested in understanding the thought of one of the great modern Christian apologists.
Applicants will be required to submit an online application form including:
A list of completed coursework.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a professor at the school in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current intellectual interests.
All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar.
Application Deadline is February 2, 2025
Grant Kaplan is professor of historical and systematic theology at Saint Louis University (USA). He is the author of three books, including René Girard, Unlikely Apologist: Mimetic Theory and Fundamental Theology (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016), and Faith and Reason through Christian History: A Theological Essay (Catholic University of America Press, 2022). He is the co-editor of the Oxford History of Modern German Theology. Volume 1: 1781–1848 (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Trevor Merrill
Trevor Merrill teaches French and French literature at Caltech and runs Imitatio, a Girard program at the Thiel Foundation. He has lectured and written widely about René Girard. He contributed translations of Girard to Conversations with René Girard: Prophet of Envy (Bloomsbury, 2020) and to the recent volume All Desire is a Desire for Being (Penguin Classics, 2023), and has edited books by and about Girard, including La Conversion de l’art (Grasset, 2023) and The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion (executive editor). He is the author of a novel, Minor Indignities (Wiseblood Books, 2020), and a literary essay, The Book of Imitation and Desire: Reading Milan Kundera with René Girard (Bloomsbury, 2013). His writing has appeared in First Things, Compact, Dappled Things, and many others. He is the producer of the award-winning documentary Things Hidden, the Life and Legacy of René Girard.
Application Deadline is February 2, 2025.
