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This edited volume situates René Girard in relation to the Western philosophical tradition. Each chapter engages the French anthropologist in dialogue with a key figure from the history of Western philosophy, from Plato to Kierkegaard. The pivotal question of René Girard and the Western Philosophical Tradition revolves around Girard’s assertion, “Since the attempt to understand religion on the basis of philosophy has failed, we ought to try the reverse method and read philosophy in the light of religion.” Major philosophers influenced Girard and contributed valuable insights into questions of desire, religion, violence, and the sacred. At the same time, he felt that Western philosophy often, if not always, neglected the founding violence that lies at the origin of culture.
This is the first collective scholarly effort at situating René Girard in relation to the Western philosophical tradition. Volume 1 features chapters on Plato, Augustine of Hippo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Blaise Pascal, Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Alexis de Tocqueville, Søren Kierkegaard, and René Girard.

The protagonist of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time observes with wonder the comings and goings of the crows that roost in the belfry of the village church in Combray, his childhood home. For René Girard, one of Proust’s great interpreters, their mysterious flight, first departing from and then returning to the vertical axis of the steeple, suggests the movement of modern history—the crisis of aristocratic models, the growing servitude of individuals possessed by mimetic desire, and the final irruption of authentic transcendence. In this rich exploration of Girard’s insights, his French editor and longtime collaborator Benoît Chantre brings Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans into dialogue with both Proust and Girard in order to push to its logical endpoint the idea of a back-and-forth movement from chaos to order. History, Chantre argues, has been driven mad by the revelation of its sacrificial engine. The only way out lies in a transformation internal to the crisis itself—only that faith which is capable of hearing the One who speaks in the Law makes it possible to avoid the perpetual ups and downs of rivalry. Acting and revealing Himself at the heart of history, an intimate model “hidden since the foundation of the world” deals a fatal blow to the circle of sin. Authentic transcendence coincides with the eschaton, the moment when—according to Saint Paul—historical time implodes into eternity.

In 1988, Nadine Dormoy conducted a series of interviews with René Girard at a pivotal moment in his career, just after a number of books and conferences had situated his work in a new context of research on self-organizing systems. In these interviews, Girard discusses the flurry of intellectual activity that followed the landmark 1981 Stanford University conference, Disorder and Order. Attended by several Nobel prize winners and other important intellectual figures, this event expanded his reputation in Europe and laid the groundwork for later accolades, including the Modern Language Association’s Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement and being elected as a member of the Académie Française. Girard also discusses Theater of Envy, his then-forthcoming book on Shakespeare and his first book written in English, as well as corrects several misunderstandings of his mimetic hypothesis. Dormoy is a spirited interlocutor, like Girard a postwar émigré who came to make a new life for herself teaching French in American universities. Translated into English for the first time by leading mimetic studies scholar William A. Johnsen, The World of René Girard is a must-have for those new to and familiar with Girard’s work.

This groundbreaking book offers the first systematic study of the Qur’ān and Islamic history in the light of René Girard’s mimetic theory. Girard did not deal deeply with Islam, offering only scattered hints in some interviews after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Addressing this gap in Girardian studies, Adnane Mokrani aims to develop an Islamic theology that goes beyond just war theory to adopt a radical nonviolent approach. He analyzes the Qur’ānic text and classical and modern exegetical literature, focusing on the Qur’ānic narratives, then extends his research to the history of Islam, removing the sacred character attributed to some events and human choices in order to disarm theology and dismantle the ideologies of power. This same critique is also applied to the unprecedented levels of violence in modern and contemporary history. A radical and politically committed theology of peace is needed to recover the spiritual dimension of religion that frees people from the temptations of the individual and collective ego. It is a mystical and narrative theology in dialogue with other world theologies on the future of humanity—an urgent appeal needed now more than ever.