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

Promotional Information

An interdisciplinary collection exploring the meaning of sacrifice and mimesis, applying it to today’s economics, politics, military, science, gender studies, and Abrahamic faiths.

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.

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*