1990 — The Wider Girardian Movement

The roots of Theology & Peace reach back to the wider Girardian movement. Founded in 1990, the Colloquium on Violence & Religion — COV&R — became the primary academic organization connected to René Girard’s work. COV&R has played an invaluable role in sustaining the intellectual community around mimetic theory, bringing together scholars from many fields to explore the relationship between violence, religion, and culture.

But over time, a number of people connected to COV&R began to sense the need for a more focused theological conversation. Girard’s work had opened up profound questions about desire, rivalry, scapegoating, sacrifice, and the Christian gospel. Those questions needed a community where theology could develop organically from mimetic theory — not as a side conversation, but as the central work.

That need felt especially urgent in the years after 9/11, as political and cultural rivalries in North America intensified. René Girard warned of an “escalation to extremes” — a growing contagion of antagonism that can take hold at every level of human life. Theology & Peace emerged in response to that crisis, asking how Christian faith might help us recognize, interrupt, and transform the patterns of rivalry and scapegoating that shape our world.