Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue

Gianni Vattimo, Rene Girard, and Edited by Pierpaolo Antonello

Share |

February, 2010
Cloth, 136 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14828-3
$18.50 / £13.00

"Rich, difficult, fascinating, and provocative reading on Christianity and culture from two of the new Europe's leading eggheads." — Library Journal

"Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith truly marks an important set of occasions in which two of today's most prominent and perhaps controversial thinkers on Christianity engage each other's thoughts. The glaring question is: How could such a dialogue not set into violent conflict the factual approach of the anthropologist Girard and the hermeneutic approach of the nihilist Vattimo? It seems that the real success of the editor is his understanding that these thinkers already share much and have interests and methods that greatly complement—and even support—each other." — Robert T. Valgenti, Lebanon Valley College

"Two of the most brilliant minds of our time, Gianni Vattimo, the foremost representative of postmodernity, and René Girard, the famed French anthropologist, engage in an enthralling discussion on the cultural significance of Christianity. Both agree that Christianity's originality lies in its unheard-of repudiation of violence in the name of caritas, yet the Nietzschean in Vattimo draws relativistic consequences whereas Girard does not. Vattimo sees in this caritas the dissolution of every strong truth claim, while Girard stresses that this caritas remains a vital veritas for our time. For Girard there are truths, not only interpretations." — Jean Grondin, Université de Montréal, and author of Introduction to Metaphysics

Related Subjects

• Christianity
• Continental/Feminist Philosophy
• Philosophy of Religion

About the Author

Gianni Vattimo is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Turin and a member of the European Parliament. His books with Columbia University Press are Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue (with René Girard), Not Being God: A Collaborative Autobiography, Art's Claim to Truth, After the Death of God, Dialogue with Nietzsche, The Future of Religion (with Richard Rorty), Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, and the Law, and After Christianity.

René Girard held the position of Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University until his retirement in 1995. He is the cofounder of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, which meets annually to discuss issues in mimetic theory, scapegoating, violence, and religion, and his books include Violence and the Sacred, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, and A Theatre of Envy. In 2005, Girard was elected to L'Académie française, the highest tribute for a French intellectual.Pierpaolo Antonello is senior university lecturer in Italian at St. John's College, Cambridge University.William McCuaig is most recently the translator of Vattimo's Not Being God.

top of page