The sacred and the political : explorations on mimesis, violence and religion / edited by Elisabetta Brighi and Antonio Cerella.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Brighi, Elisabetta, editor.

Cerella, Antonio, editor.

Series:

Political theory and contemporary philosophy.

Political theory and contemporary philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and politics.

Violence--Religious aspects.

Violence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (268 pages)

Place of Publication:

[New York] : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Summary:

"What is the relationship between the sacred and the political, immanence and transcendence, religion and violence? And how has this relationship affected the history of the West and its political reason? In this volume an international group of scholars explore these questions in light of mimetic theory as formulated by René Girard (1923-), one of the most important thinkers of our time. From Aristotle and his idea of tragedy, to Machiavelli and political modernity, to contemporary biopolitics, this work provides an indispensable guide to those who want to assess the thorny connections between sacrality and politics in Western political thought and find an unexplored yet critical path from ancient Greece to our post-secular condition. While looking at the past, this book seeks to illuminate the future relevance of the sacred/secular divide in the so-called 'age of globalization'."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Contents:

Introduction : The Power of Sacrifice: René Girard and the Political / Antonio Cerella

Chapter 1. Aristotle on Mimesis and Violence: Things Hidden since the Foundation of Literary Theory / Arata Takeda

Chapter 2. René Girard and Thomas Aquinas on Prophecy and the Purging of the Notion of Justice / Paul M. Rogers

Chapter 3. Unlikely Twins Machiavelli and Girard on Violence, Crisis and the Origins of the State / Ernesto Gallo

Chapter 4. René Girard, Human Nature and Political Conflict / Kent Enns

Chapter 5. Spinoza, Girard and the Possibility of a Purely Immanent Democracy / Stéphane Vinolo

Chapter 6. René Girard's Mimetic Theory: An "Anti-political Theology"? / Michael Kirwan

Chapter 7. A "Theoretical Double": Violence, Religion and Social Order in Schmitt and Girard / Andrea Salvatore

Chapter 8. Mimesis and Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason / Paul Dumouchel

Chapter 9. The Sacred and the Secular: René Girard and Gianni Vattimo on Modernity and Violence / Pierpaolo Antonello

Chapter 10. The Myth of Origin: Archaeology and History in the Work of Agamben and Girard / Antonio Cerella

Chapter 11. The Age of Panic: On Mimetic Post-modernity / Emanuele Antonelli

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-62892-597-3

1-4742-9730-7

OCLC:

956525381