Violence and the sacred

Ren Girard is one of the mostly widely-cited thinkers in contemporary European thought.

First published in 1972, Violence and the Sacred marked the starting point of a substantial new phase of his thought.

In this vivid study of human evil, Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature and myth.

Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.