A Theatre of Envy

René Girard

In this groundbreaking work, one of our foremost literary and cultural critics turns to the major figure in English literature, William Shakespeare, and proposes a dramatic new reading of nearly all his plays and poems.

Throughout this impressively sustained reading of Shakespeare Girard’s prose is sophisticated, but contemporary, and accessible to the general reader.  Anyone interested in literature, anthropology, or psychoanalysis will want to read this challenging book.

978 085244 510 5

372 pages

£20.00

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

René Girard

First and foremost a anthropological study of biblical texts and Christian traditions. Its goal is to show the unique role of the Gospel texts in exposing the parasite of satanic power on human order from the foundation of the first human society, through the persecution of the prophets, to finally the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. His method is to show the biblical tradition of exposing human violence in siding with, and telling of the story of the victim. In contrast, he shows that it is exactly the hidden story of the victim that otherwise produces mythology in the ancient world (there are a few examinations of myths). Girard finds in the Gospel narratives the secret hidden in mythology and human religious ritual - hidden violent social order resulting from rivalry between individuals and communities that periodically expels itself on a scapegoat victim. It is the revelation of violent social order inherent in the "principalities and powers" and the "prince of this world" found uniquely in the Gospel texts, that Girard uses to account for the modern disintegration of archaic religion and the modern concern for victims.

A brilliantly accessible presentation of one of the most enlightening intellectual breakthroughs to come from the twentieth century.  Gerard enables us to talk for the first time about a ‘phenomenology of redemption.’

Robert J Daly SJ, Boston College

Beyond question one of the seminal Christian thinkers of our time

978 085244 290 6

224 pages

£14.99