Mimesis and Sacrifice: Applying Girard's Mimetic Theory Across the Disciplines

by Marcia Pally (Editor), Scott Cowdell (Editor), Chris Fleming (Editor), Joel Hodge (Editor)

Overview

Central to identity, personal responsibility, economic systems, theology, and the political and military imaginaries, the practice of sacrifice has inspired, disturbed, and abused. Mimesis and Sacrifice brings together scholars from the humanities, military, business, and social sciences to examine the role that sacrifice plays in different present-day settings, from economics to gender relations.

Inspired by Rene Girard's work, chapters explore (i) the extent to which the social character of human living makes us mimetic, (ii) whether mimesis necessarily leads to competitive aggression, (iii) whether aggression must be defused by aggressive sacrificial rituals-and whether all sacrifice has this aim, and (iv) the role of the “second lesson of the cross” (as Girard called it), the lesson of self-giving for others, in addressing present societal problems.

By investigating sacrifice across this span of arenas and questions yet within one volume, Mimesis and Sacrifice presents a new appreciation of its influence and consequences in the world today, contributing not only to mimetic theory but to greater understanding of which societal arrangement enable us to live well together and what hobbles that goal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350254046
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/22/2021
Series:	Violence, Desire, and the Sacred
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Marcia Pally is Professor in Multilingual Multicultural Studies at New York University, USA and regular Guest Professor at the Theology Faculty at Humboldt University-Berlin, Germany.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction, Marcia Pally (New York University, USA)

Part I: Our Understanding of Sacrifice, Expanded: Origins, Development, Types, and Valence
1. A Comparative and Evolutionary Perspective on Sacrifice and Cooperation, Peter M. Kappeler (University of Goettingen, Germany)
2. Sacrifice Between West and East: René Girard, Simone Weil, and Mahatma Gandhi on Violence and Non-Violence, Wolfgang Palaver (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
3. Patterns of Sacrifice and Power Structure, Hassan Rachik (University Hassan II of Casablanca, Morocco)
4. Rabbinic Reflections on Intentional Sacrifice and Sanctification, Tsvi Blanchard (Fordham University Law School, USA)
5. Kant on Sacrifice and Morality, David Pan (University of California at Irvine, USA)
6. Sacrifice Amidst Covenant: From Abuse to Gift, Marcia Pally (New York University, USA and Humboldt University-Berlin, Germany)
7. Generative Sacrifice: Girard, Feminism, and Christ, Anna Mercedes (College of St. Benedict, USA and St. John's University, USA)
8. Sacrifice and Liberation: A Reading by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in Latin America, Francisco Canzani (Focolare, Vatican, Italy)

Part II: Is the "Problem" of Sacrifice a Problem of Conceptualizing Masculinity?
9. Between Victim and Perpetrator: Constructions of Heroic Masculinity and the Religion of Death, Ulrike Brunotte (University of Maastricht, the Netherlands)
10. The Ambiguity of Sacrifice in a Post-Heroic Nation: A Military Perspective, Rolf von Uslar (Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, Germany)

Part III: An Expanded Understanding of Sacrifice Applied to The Economic, The Political, and The Future:
11. Gift or Sacrifice? History, Politics and Religion, John Milbank (University of Nottingham, UK)
12. Strategy, Spectacle, or Self-Emptying? Sacrifice and the Search for Business Ethics, Philip Roscoe (University of St. Andrews, UK)
13. Common Good Economy: Capitalism, Sacrifice and Humanity, Adrian Pabst (University of Kent, UK)
14. Suffering and Sacrifice in an Unfinished Universe, Ilia Delio, OSF (University of Villanova, USA)

Index

Editorial Reviews

[The] book opens the door to new and fruitful explorations by researchers who, while recognizing the enormous explanatory power of Girard's body of work, engage it within the fields in which they labor on a regular basis … [A] fine addition to the growing canon of critical writing on an individual thinker whose work is destined undoubtedly to be aligned with that of Kant, Hegel, Durkheim, and Freud in prominence and depth of insight.” —The Bulletin of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion

“[A] nuanced approach to understanding the implications of mimetic theory and Girardian sacrifice across disciplines.” —Reading Religion

“René Girard's work has spawned research across the disciplines on concept and reality of sacrifice. Marcia Pally has brought together an outstanding group of contributors whose texts illustrate the stimulating impact Girard's thought continues to have on issues relevant to the academy and beyond. All those with an interest in this thriving field will have to consult this rich and thought-provoking volume.” —Johannes Zachhuber, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, University of Oxford, UK

From the Publisher