Abstract
René Girard and the German Classics Professor Walter Burkert developed the most important theories on the relationship between violence and religion in the twentieth century. In 1972, each published, completely independent from the other, their seminal works on the role of violence in archaic religions. In the following, I highlight similarities and differences between these two thinkers.
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Further Reading
Burkert, Walter. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
———. Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. Translated by Peter Bing. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G., 1987. Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987.
Palaver, Wolfgang. “Violence and Religion: Walter Burkert and René Girard in Comparison.” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 17 (2010): 121–137.
Tacitus, Cornelius. Agricola and Germany. Translated by A. R. Birley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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Palaver, W. (2017). Girard and Burkert: Hunting, Homo Necans, Guilt. In: Alison, J., Palaver, W. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_7
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