SYMMIMESIS: imitation together

The symmimetic idea is simple - we are all "shaped shapers."

We all are fellow-imitators of one another, each one of us (created, I believe, in the image of God) a role-model to others for being human.

Like actors in rehearsal, we influence the others with whom we interact in developing the persona we put on in life.

Each person's persona is, to some degree, formed by and forming others.

This persona, in turn, has some effect on shaping the "inner person" that constitutes one's self.

FORMING THOUGHTS, REFLECTING LIFE

Of all the books that I have read (and that is many!), four in particular have had a significant affect on me:

Mimetic Reflections:

A Study in Hermeneutics, Theology and Ethics,

by William Schweiker;

Role Playing and Identity:

The Limits of Theatre as Metaphor,

by Bruce Wilshire;

Improvisation:

Drama of Christian Ethics,

by Samuel Wells;

and

The Drama of Doctrine:

A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology,

by Kevin VanHoozer.

The first book introduced me to the notion of mimesis

through a theological discussion of Derrida, Girard, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Kierkegaard;

the second book introduced me to phenomenological philosophy

through theoretical discussion of theatre, my life-long passion;

the third book confirmed my intuitions

regarding the application of Keith Johnstone's ideas on improvisation to Christian life;

and the fourth book authenticated that confirmation

by radically applying the theatre metaphor to Christian doctrine.

Now I hope to bring it all full circle

by drawing on all four books to express my own thinking

regarding the actual practice of "putting on Christ."