Pierpaolo Antonello is Reader in modern Italian literature and culture at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College. With René Girard and João Cezar de Castro Rocha he coauthored Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture, and he is a member of the Research and Publications committees of Imitatio.Paul Gifford is Buchanan Professor of French emeritus at the University of St Andrews, where he also was Departmental Chair for seven years and directed the Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies for ten years. He is a member of the French National Center for Scientific Research and former Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

FROM THE FOREWORD:“The importance of studies such as the ones contained in this book is that they both underline the urgency of the cultural crisis and open up impressive possibilities for conversation between Girardians and others in the mainstream of our discourse. If Girard and most of the contributors to this volume are right, such conversation is anything but a luxury.”—Right Reverend Rowan Williams, former Archibishiop of Canterbury

• Contents Foreword / Rowan Williams Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. The Programming of Origins: Sacred Violence and Its Legacy A Covenant among Beasts: Human and Chimpanzee Violence in Evolutionary Perspective / Paul Dumouchel Liminal Crises: The Origins of Cultural Order, the Default Mechanisms of Survival, and the Pedagogy of the Sacrificial Victim / Pierpaolo Antonello Victims, Sacred Violence, and Reconciliation: A Darwinian-Girardian Reading of Human Peril and Human Possibility / Harald Wydra Empire of Sacrifice: Violence and the Sacred in American Culture / Jon Pahl and James Wellman Part Two. Rebooting Evolutionary Survival: Is Christianity Crucial? From Closed Societies to the Open Society: Parochial Altruism and Christian Universalism / Wolfgang Palaver Girard, the Gospels, and the Symmetrical Inversion of the Founding Murder / Paul Gifford Survival and Salvation: A Girardian Reading of Christian Hope in Evolutionary Perspective / Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly Part Three. Violent Reciprocities and Peace-Making in the Contemporary World Northern Ireland: Breaking the Inheritance of Conflict and Violence / Duncan Morrow Communities of Contrast: Modeling Reconciliation in Northern Ireland / Derick Wilson Girardian Reflections on Israel and Palestine / Mel Konner South Africa: Positive Mimesis and the Turn toward Peace / Leon Marincowitz Peace-Making in Practice and Theory: An Encounter with René Girard / Scott Atran Part Four. Between Progress and Abyss: Our Modernity Nuclear Apocalypse: The Balance of Terror and Girardian “Misrecognition” / Jean-Pierre Dupuy The “Intermediary” Case / Margo Boenig-Liptsin Misrecognition of “Misrecognition” / Paul Dumouchel Survival without Salvation? / Paul Gifford Girard, Climate Change, and Apocalypse / Michael Northcott A New Heaven and a New Earth: Apocalypticism and Its Alternatives / Michael Kirwan About the Authors Index

Pierpaolo Antonello is Reader in modern Italian literature and culture at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College. With René Girard and João Cezar de Castro Rocha he coauthored Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture, and he is a member of the Research and Publications committees of Imitatio.Paul Gifford is Buchanan Professor of French emeritus at the University of St Andrews, where he also was Departmental Chair for seven years and directed the Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies for ten years. He is a member of the French National Center for Scientific Research and former Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

FROM THE FOREWORD:“The importance of studies such as the ones contained in this book is that they both underline the urgency of the cultural crisis and open up impressive possibilities for conversation between Girardians and others in the mainstream of our discourse. If Girard and most of the contributors to this volume are right, such conversation is anything but a luxury.”—Right Reverend Rowan Williams, former Archibishiop of Canterbury

• Contents Foreword / Rowan Williams Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. The Programming of Origins: Sacred Violence and Its Legacy A Covenant among Beasts: Human and Chimpanzee Violence in Evolutionary Perspective / Paul Dumouchel Liminal Crises: The Origins of Cultural Order, the Default Mechanisms of Survival, and the Pedagogy of the Sacrificial Victim / Pierpaolo Antonello Victims, Sacred Violence, and Reconciliation: A Darwinian-Girardian Reading of Human Peril and Human Possibility / Harald Wydra Empire of Sacrifice: Violence and the Sacred in American Culture / Jon Pahl and James Wellman Part Two. Rebooting Evolutionary Survival: Is Christianity Crucial? From Closed Societies to the Open Society: Parochial Altruism and Christian Universalism / Wolfgang Palaver Girard, the Gospels, and the Symmetrical Inversion of the Founding Murder / Paul Gifford Survival and Salvation: A Girardian Reading of Christian Hope in Evolutionary Perspective / Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly Part Three. Violent Reciprocities and Peace-Making in the Contemporary World Northern Ireland: Breaking the Inheritance of Conflict and Violence / Duncan Morrow Communities of Contrast: Modeling Reconciliation in Northern Ireland / Derick Wilson Girardian Reflections on Israel and Palestine / Mel Konner South Africa: Positive Mimesis and the Turn toward Peace / Leon Marincowitz Peace-Making in Practice and Theory: An Encounter with René Girard / Scott Atran Part Four. Between Progress and Abyss: Our Modernity Nuclear Apocalypse: The Balance of Terror and Girardian “Misrecognition” / Jean-Pierre Dupuy The “Intermediary” Case / Margo Boenig-Liptsin Misrecognition of “Misrecognition” / Paul Dumouchel Survival without Salvation? / Paul Gifford Girard, Climate Change, and Apocalypse / Michael Northcott A New Heaven and a New Earth: Apocalypticism and Its Alternatives / Michael Kirwan About the Authors Index

Pierpaolo Antonello is Reader in modern Italian literature and culture at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College. With René Girard and João Cezar de Castro Rocha he coauthored Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture, and he is a member of the Research and Publications committees of Imitatio.Paul Gifford is Buchanan Professor of French emeritus at the University of St Andrews, where he also was Departmental Chair for seven years and directed the Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies for ten years. He is a member of the French National Center for Scientific Research and former Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

FROM THE FOREWORD:“The importance of studies such as the ones contained in this book is that they both underline the urgency of the cultural crisis and open up impressive possibilities for conversation between Girardians and others in the mainstream of our discourse. If Girard and most of the contributors to this volume are right, such conversation is anything but a luxury.”—Right Reverend Rowan Williams, former Archibishiop of Canterbury

• Contents Foreword / Rowan Williams Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. The Programming of Origins: Sacred Violence and Its Legacy A Covenant among Beasts: Human and Chimpanzee Violence in Evolutionary Perspective / Paul Dumouchel Liminal Crises: The Origins of Cultural Order, the Default Mechanisms of Survival, and the Pedagogy of the Sacrificial Victim / Pierpaolo Antonello Victims, Sacred Violence, and Reconciliation: A Darwinian-Girardian Reading of Human Peril and Human Possibility / Harald Wydra Empire of Sacrifice: Violence and the Sacred in American Culture / Jon Pahl and James Wellman Part Two. Rebooting Evolutionary Survival: Is Christianity Crucial? From Closed Societies to the Open Society: Parochial Altruism and Christian Universalism / Wolfgang Palaver Girard, the Gospels, and the Symmetrical Inversion of the Founding Murder / Paul Gifford Survival and Salvation: A Girardian Reading of Christian Hope in Evolutionary Perspective / Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly Part Three. Violent Reciprocities and Peace-Making in the Contemporary World Northern Ireland: Breaking the Inheritance of Conflict and Violence / Duncan Morrow Communities of Contrast: Modeling Reconciliation in Northern Ireland / Derick Wilson Girardian Reflections on Israel and Palestine / Mel Konner South Africa: Positive Mimesis and the Turn toward Peace / Leon Marincowitz Peace-Making in Practice and Theory: An Encounter with René Girard / Scott Atran Part Four. Between Progress and Abyss: Our Modernity Nuclear Apocalypse: The Balance of Terror and Girardian “Misrecognition” / Jean-Pierre Dupuy The “Intermediary” Case / Margo Boenig-Liptsin Misrecognition of “Misrecognition” / Paul Dumouchel Survival without Salvation? / Paul Gifford Girard, Climate Change, and Apocalypse / Michael Northcott A New Heaven and a New Earth: Apocalypticism and Its Alternatives / Michael Kirwan About the Authors Index