THEOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF MIMETIC THEORY

Summary When we think about the mimetic theory and its developments in recent scientific thought, we quickly associate this belonging to the intellectual corollary of René Girard. This author offered a new look at violence and the sacred, suggesting that we are guided by a mimetic mechanism of appropriation so competitive, contagious and disruptive that the first communities would have succumbed to the level of extinction, were it not for our fortuitous ability to channel collective violence. and direct it against a victim; a scapegoat. The great intuition of this author is that the collective violence inflicted and sentenced against a scapegoat constitutes the heart of the sacred. Not only that, but human cultures were only possible, paradoxically, thanks to this first homicide that appeased the violence of all against a single individual. Therefore, the word that designates the persecuted or murdered victim is, in Girardian terms, “scapegoat”. In view of this, it can be pointed out that the place of the victim (scapegoat) in the primacy of Liberation Theology is not unknown. Likewise, this communication intends to analyze how this theological branch understands this victimization process and to what extent Girard's scapegoat can chorus the victims pointed out and protected by Liberation Theology