Violence and the Sacred

By: René Girard

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here 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.

©1972 Editions Bernard Grasset; English translation copyright 1977 by The Johns Hopkins University Press (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

This book explains so much about the current moment we are living through.

No one would argue that these are turbulent times we are living in however most of us don’t know exactly what has caused it or how to bring the disorder to and end. This book, if one has the courage to read it has scientific theory of religion, which may require the setting aside of your own personal thoughts and feelings about religion, can be very useful in understanding the primitive behaviors we see playing out every day weather in the form of violence and the threat of violence in the striving for political power all over the globe or this can possibly and partially explain the mechanisms at which lead to school shootings. Obviously, Gerard’s theories have not been embraced by mainstream academia. Otherwise we would be discussing this work which was written in the 1970s. Not discussing this work or thinking critically about a realistic theory of violence isn’t helping us cope with the post religious world we find ourselves living in today. I highly recommend this book and even more so “things hidden since the foundation of the world.“