.gif) Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | René Girard |
|---|---|
| Original title | La Violence et le sacré |
| Translator | Patrick Gregory |
| Language | French |
| Subject | The sacred, sacrifice |
| Publisher | Editions Bernard Grasset, Johns Hopkins University Press |
Publication date | 1972 |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1977 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 455 (first edition) |
| ISBN | 978-1472520814 |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in France |
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Violence and the Sacred (French: La violence et le sacré) is a 1972 book about the sacred by the French critic René Girard, in which the author explores the ritual role of sacrifice. The book received both positive reviews, which praised Girard's theory of the sacred, and more mixed assessments. Some commentators have seen the book as a work that expresses or points toward a Christian religious perspective. However, the book has also been seen as "atheistic"[1] or "hostile to religion".[2] Violence and the Sacred became highly influential, in anthropology, literary criticism, and even Christology. It has been compared to the classicist Walter Burkert's Homo Necans (1972). Girard further developed its ideas in a subsequent book, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978).
- ^ Fleming 2004, p. 111.
- ^ Fleming 2004, pp. 6, 8, 64–65, 110.