Scott Cowdell is Associate Professor and Research Fellow in Public and Contextual Theology at Charles Sturt University, Australia, Canon Theologian of the Canberra-Goulburn Anglican Diocese, and Founding President of the Australian Girard Seminar.Chris Fleming is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. His is the author of Violence and Mimesis (2004) and is current Vice-President of the Australian Girard Seminar.Joel Hodge is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Australian Catholic University, Australia. He is the author of Resisting Violence and Victimisation: Christian Faith and Solidarity in East Timor (2012) and is current Treasurer and Secretary of the Australian Girard Seminar.

Chris Fleming's call in 2004 to take up René Girard's research programme has been convincingly answered by The Australian Girard Seminar and their distinguished guests. Volume Two of Violence, Desire, and the Sacred is important to anyone working in mimetic theory and a persuasive model for those who would productively integrate interdisciplinary researchers.

• ContributorsForewordPaul DumouchelIntroductionJoel Hodge, Scott Cowdell, and Chris FlemingMimesis, Violence, and the Sacred: An Overview of the Thought of René GirardChris FlemingPart 1: Politics1. Abolition or Transformation? The Political Implications of René Girard's Theory of SacrificeWolfgang Palaver 2. Sacrifice in the Democratic Age: Rivalry and Crisis in Recent Australian PoliticsJoel Hodge 3. Mimetic Theory and Hermeneutic CommunismPaolo Diego Bubbio 4. War on Terror: The Escalation to ExtremesSarah Drews Lucas 5. Scapegoating the Guilty: Girard and International Criminal LawNathan Kensey Part 2: Cultural and Textual Analysis6. The Scapegoating of Cheerleading and CheerleadersEmma A. Jane7. “Things Hidden”: On Shame, Violence, and Concealment in AutobiographyRosamund Dalziell 8 “That False Paradise”: Desire, Sacrifice, and the American Dream in Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin SuicidesCarly Osborn Part 3: Theology9. Hearing the Cry of the Poor: René Girard and St. Augustine on the PsalmsAnn W. Astell 10. Sacrifice, Pagan and ChristianRobert J. Daly SJ 11. Living Faithfully “Where Danger Threatens”: Christian Discernment According to John Cassian and René GirardKevin LenehanPart 4: Psychology12. A Psychologist Venturing Across an Interdisciplinary Bridge to Mimetic Theory and Its ApplicationsMarie R. Joyce13. Internet Offenders as Girardian ScapegoatsBruce A. StevensPart 5: Applied Mimetic Theory14. A Girardian Reading of the Evagrian “Eight Kinds of Evil Thoughts”Draško Dizdar 15. Forsaking Our Violent Ways: A Girardian Reflection on the Sermon on the Mount as a Path to a New Social OrderPeter Stork16. Girard's Interdividual Psychology Applied to Pastoral Leadership in ChurchesBruce Wilson 17. Ecclesial Roots of Clergy Sexual Abuse: A Girardian ReflectionScott Cowdell18. Practical Reflections on Nonviolent AtonementMichael HardinGlossary of Key Girardian TermsFurther ReadingIndex