Those who anticipated the demise of religion and the advent of a peaceful, secularized global village have seen the last two decades confound their predictions. René Girard’s mimetic theory is a key to understanding the new challenges posed by our world of resurgent violence and pluralistic cultures and traditions. Girard sought to explain how the Judeo-Christian narrative exposes a founding murder at the origin of human civilization and demystifies the bloody sacrifices of archaic religions. Meanwhile, his book Sacrifice, a reading of conflict and sacrificial resolution in the Vedic Brahmanas, suggests that mimetic theory’s insights also resonate with several non-Western religious and spiritual traditions. This volume collects engagements with Girard by scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism and situates them within contemporary theology, philosophy, and religious studies.
ContentsIntroductionPart 1. Mimetic Theory and ReligionNeither Dawkins nor Durkheim: On René Girard’s Theory of Religion, by Jean-Pierre DupuySacrifice in Hegel and Girard, by Anselm Tilman RamelowReason and Revelation: An Important Distinction?, by John RanieriThe Messianic Moment: Bergson and Girard, by Benoît ChantreGirard and Religion in the Age of Secularism, by Otto KallscheuerWhy Rousseau Cannot Laugh: Structuring Motif—“Achever,” by Jeremiah AlbergGirard and the Feminist Critique of Religion: Intimate Mediation in Kristeva and Girard, by Martha ReinekePart 2. Mimetic Theory, Christianity, and Interfaith (Interreligious) DialogueGirard and World Religions: The State of the Question, by Robert J. DalyRené Girard and World Religions, by Michael KirwanThe Ambivalence of Interreligious Historiography: Foreign and Domestic Narratives, by Richard SchenkSacrifice as a Contested Concept between R. Schwager and R. Girard and Its Significance for Interreligious Dialogue, by Nikolaus WandingerThe Abrahamic Revolution, by Wolfgang PalaverThe “Hellenic” Rationality of Interreligious Dialogue: René Girard, Simone Weil, and Pope Benedict XVI, by Ann AstellPart 3. Rivalry, Sacrifice, and World ReligionsBurning Desires, Burning Corpses: Girardian Reflections on Fire in Hinduism and Buddhism, by Brian CollinsGirard and Hindu Sacrifice, by Noel ShethThe Roots of Violence: Society and the Individual in Buddhism and Girard, by Jacob Dalton and Alexander von RospattReligious Sacrifice, Social Scapegoating, and Self-Justification, by Ted PetersJudaism and the Exodus from Archaic Religion: Reading René Girard among the World Religions, by Sandor GoodhartTawhid: The Oneness of God and the Desire for the Good, by Adam EricksenIslam: Law and Violence (and Nonviolence), by Rüdiger LohlkerGirard and the Analogy of Desire, by James AlisonContributorsIndex
