Books on René Girard's Mimetic Theory (Dr.

Ilkwaen Chung)

My Korean books on René Girard's Mimetic Theory within the context of

the interdisciplinary studies on Buddhist studies, F. Nietzsche's Dionysian
philosophy, Christian theology, postmodernism(post-structuralism and
deconstruction), comparative mythology and modern natural sciences.

Ilkwaen Chung, The Origin of the Universe and the Culture – René Girard
and the Natural Science (Seoul: CLC, 2019) (in Korean).

This book explores the interdisciplinary dialog between the René

Girard's Mimetic Theory and the modern natural sciences such as chaos
theory, mirror neurons and the neurosciences, Big Bang cosmology and
Quantum mechanics. Unlike the anti-scientific tendency of postmodernism,
Girard's Mimetic Theory seeks to explore the scientific and universal
understanding of human desire and human civilization. A member of the
prestigious Académie Française, René Girard has been called "the new
Darwin of the human sciences" and “Einstein of the social
sciences.”Girard, like Einstein, created a framework into which the various
subdisciplines such as anthropology, sociology, politics, economics,
religious studies, comparative mythology and theology could be integrated
into one set of basic ideas - into one story. Therefore, as Michel Serres puts
it, Girard's scientific big questions could be understood as a kind of Big
Bang of he human sciences.
This book deals with the various scientific views of many scholars such
as Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Paul Dirac, Anton Zeilinger, Albert
Einstein, Daniel C. Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Georges Lemaître, Fred
Hoyle, Paul Davies, Fritjof Capra, Wolfgang Pauli, Michael Faraday, James
Clerk Maxwell, Frank J. Tipler. This book also elaborates notable scholars
who have focused on studying the intersection of science and religion and
science such as John Polkinghorne, Alvin Plantinga, Thomas F. Torrance,
Michael Welker, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Raymund Schwager.
This book has also critically re-examined the popular but superficial
connection between Buddhism and the Multiverse Theory.
My other Korean books on the Mimetic Theory
2. Ilkwaen Chung, Buddha and Scapegoat: René Girard and Origins of
Buddhist Culture (Seoul: SFC Publications, 2013). (Hardcover). Winner of
the Korea Christian Publication Association Book Award
This book aims to analyse the process of idolization of enlightenment of
Buddhas in the light of Girard's scapegoat mechanism. This book exploares
the unveiled scapegoat mechanism in Buddhism.

3. Ilkwaen Chung, Twilight of the Idols and Christ: René Girard and
Contemporary Thoughts (Seoul: Hwpbooks, 2014).
In this book, I have dealt with the opposition between Dionysus versus the
Crucified in thoughts of Nietzsche and Girard. Many thinkers such as
Habermas, Levinas, Zizek, Vattimo, Simone Weil, Carl Schmitt and so on ,
have been discussed in my book, which attempts to elaborate on the
implications of twilight of the idols caused by Christ.

4. Ilkwaen Chung, The Anthropology of the Cross. Mimetic Theory and

René Girard (Daejeon: Daejanggan, 2015).

5. Ilkwaen Chung, René Girard and Postmodern Philosophy. Mimetic

Theory, Poststructualism and Deconstruction (Seoul: Dong-yeon-press,
2017).

6. Ilkwaen Chung, Jesus is Anti-Myth. René Girard and Comparative

Mythology (Seoul: Hwpbooks, 2018).