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Theology Beyond Metaphysics
Transformative Semiotics of René Girard
Foreword by Scott Cowdell
Imprint: Cascade Books
A theory of human origins that is one-half Charles Darwin and one-half Cain and Abel is bound to entail a lot of rethinking of traditional themes. Rene Girard's thesis of original human violence and the Bible's power to reveal it has been around for more than a generation, but its consequences for Christian theology are still only slowly being unpacked. Anthony Bartlett's book makes a signal contribution, representing an astonishing leap forward in understanding what a biblical disclosure of founding violence means for Christian thought and life. If human language arose directly out of the primal experience of murder, then semiotics becomes a core area for theological examination. Tracing the discipline of semiotics through postmodern thinkers, then back through its birth in the Latin era, Bartlett shows how Girard's thought is itself a semiotic emergence, beyond standard Christian metaphysics. Above all, Girardian theory of human signs demands we see the generative impact of violence in our language and thought, and then, conversely, that the Word of God, crucified without retaliation and risen in the same identity, brings a totally new sign and relation into history, offering a thoroughgoing transformation of human life and meaning.
Anthony Bartlett earned his PhD at Syracuse University in 1999. Previously he ran a center for the homeless in London, England, and before that served as a Roman Catholic priest. His time as a priest brought him wide theological exposure, including study in Rome, and he has continued to research, write, and teach theology as impacted by Girardian anthropology. He is the author of several books, including a sci-fi novel. He’s married with three children.
“In his cutting-edge book, Theology Beyond Metaphysics, Anthony Bartlett reveals the radical way in which God has intervened to liberate and reconstitute human consciousness, transforming it from the inside out with language-signs of nonviolence. I am grateful for its hopeful vision: that the new beginning inaugurated by Jesus is in our day coming to full clarity, with an urgency that cannot fail to transform human reality.”
—James Warren, author of Compassion or Apocalypse: A Comprehensible Guide to the Thought of René Girard
“For anyone interested in the theological application of the thought of René Girard, Tony Bartlett has long been essential reading. Here he outdoes himself in the clarity with which he makes potentially complicated matters simple. He brings us to the heart of why and how Girard’s insight communicates an epochal shift in lived understanding of both the gospel and what it means to be human. Deep grazing, to which I will have to return to learn more.”
—James Alison, Catholic priest, theologian, and author
“Bartlett has an expansive vision with the sign at its center. Unfolding it evocatively through Girard, Heidegger, Marion, and the lesser known but no less rewarding semiotics of John Deely, he arrives at John’s Gospel, in the company of the Beloved Disciple, to discover Christ as the transformative sign that makes all things new.”
—Susannah Ticciati, Reader in Christian Theology, King’s College London
“In this important book, Anthony Bartlett draws on René Girard’s biblical anthropology in vital and telling ways. By engaging—and winningly explaining—advances in semiotics, he rewrites intellectual history. His analyses decouple theology from its unwieldy partnership with metaphysics, while mining key insights in philosophical tradition from Aquinas through Peirce, from Heidegger through Derrida, from Vico to Lévi-Strauss.”
—Andrew J. McKenna, Emeritus Professor of French, Loyola University Chicago
“In this paradigm-shifting work, Anthony Bartlett unfolds poetic language, potent descriptors, and powerful artifacts for dynamically revealing God as nonviolent. Though this is a deeply philosophical work, this book is an astonishing revelation that should be witnessed to around tables, from the pulpit, and even on our interwebs. Bartlett has given us an invaluable resource for telling a better story to the worlds we inhabit.”
—Dan White Jr., co-founder of The Praxis Gathering and author of Love Over Fear
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