From desire to conversion : Pascal's Wager and Girard's Mimetic Theory

[Extract] In his 2005 Subiaco Address, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger proposed Pascal's solution to the human dilemma, namely, that one should live ‘veluti si Deus daretur’, that is, ‘as if God existed.’1 In his Wager, Pascal explains that there is infinitely more to be gained by believing in God than by not doing so. To decide for God in this way is to move beyond irresolvable, theoretical debates over God's existence to the realm of urgent existential questions. But it could be that contemporary culture is risk-averse in this respect and becomes focused on petty rivalries and identity politics. It is unaware of the violence of the mimetic dynamisms at work, despite the illusory, undisturbed state of its complacency. On the other hand, Pascal's encouragement to risk, for the right reason, can find support in the anthropological insights of René Girard and his mimetic theory. Even if hundreds of years separate them, a meeting between these two provocative French thinkers is long overdue.