Can We Survive Our Origins? – by Pierpaolo Antonello, Paul Gifford
Are religions intrinsically violent (as is strenuously argued by the ‘new atheists’)? Or, as Girard argues, have they been functionally rational instruments developed to manage and cope with the intrinsically violent runaway dynamic that characterizes human social organization in all periods of human history? Is violence decreasing in this time of secular modernity post-Christendom (as […]
When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer – by René Girard
In this lively series of conversations with writer Michel Treguer, René Girard revisits the major concepts of mimetic theory and explores science, democracy, and the nature of God and freedom. Girard affirms that “our unprecedented present is incomprehensible without Christianity.” Globalization has unified the world, yet civil war and terrorism persist despite free trade and […]
Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation
by Walter Burkert, René Girard, Jonathan Z. Smith Burkert, Girard, and Smith hold important and contradictory theories about the nature and origin of ritual sacrifice, and the role violence plays in religion and culture. These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially […]
Violence and the Sacred – by René Girard
His fascinating and ambitious book provides a fully developed theory of violence as the ‘heart and secret soul’ of the sacred. Girard’s fertile, combative mind links myth to prophetic writing, primitive religions to classical tragedy. Check out Violence and the Sacred on Amazon.
The Scapegoat – by René Girard
Girard, professor of the French language, literature, and civilization at Stanford, builds on his notable previous anthropological and literary examinations of myth and ritual in human society. Here he applies his appraisals of Freud and Levi-Strauss to demonstrate how religion functions to keep violence outside society by deflecting it onto a scapegoat whose sacrifice restores […]
Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture – by René Girard
Evolution and Conversion explore the main tenets of René Girard’s thought in a series of dialogues. Here, Girard reflects on the evolution of his thought and offers striking new insights on topics such as violence, religion, desire and literature. His long argument is a historical one in which the origin of culture and religion is reunited […]
Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue – by René Girard
The debate over the place of religion in secular, democratic societies dominates the philosophical and intellectual discourse. These arguments often polarize around simplistic reductions, making efforts at reconciliation impossible. Yet more rational stances do exist, positions that broker a peace between relativism and religion in people’s public, private, and ethical lives. Christianity Truth and Weakening […]