Violence and religion

Abstract

This essay would try to make more comprehensible the thesis of the French anthropologist René Girard which states that religion is the matrix of culture. The thesis gathers more newness and interest because it states a closer relationship between the mechanisms of violence in the human environment. It all starts, following this thesis, in the evident imitative character of human desires which induce individuals to unavoidable conflicts resolved through violent manners. Then, takes place a sequence of generalized vengence that could threaten the social group with desintegration. At this point, the essay defines the dynamics of violent mechanisms, the appearance of religion and the origins of other human institutions whose paradigm is the religious institution itself. Finally, this essay proposes an alternative to the actual violence in our socities today, in accordence with the principles of Christianity.