Mimetic Theory and the Katēchon

Abstract

This article explores the resonance of the concept of the katēchon in apocalyptic political thought and in relation to René Girard’s mimetic theory. The katēchon has played a significant role in contemporary political theology. Like the scapegoat, the katēchon is a disturbing concept. An erroneous conflation of katēchein (to seize, to possess, to hold fast) and kōlyein (to hold off, to defer, to restrain) has allowed mainstream Christian thinking to be infiltrated by extra-biblical sources. Girardian mimetic theory makes senses of this problematic concept, in precisely the way that the author of John’s gospel allows us to make sense of the double-edged prophecy of Caiaphas (John 11:50). Just as Jesus is, and is not, a “scapegoat” (in the sense intended by Caiaphas), so Christianity has performed a katēchontic role while being, ultimately, the destroyer of all katēchontic principles.