Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation

by Walter Burkert (editor), René Girard, Jonathan Z. Smith

Burkert, Girard, and Smith hold important and contradictory theories about the nature and origin of ritual sacrifice, and the role violence plays in religion and culture. These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially one based on violence. The special value of this volume is the conversations as such -- the real record of working scholars engaged with one another's theories, as they make and meet challenges, and move and maneuver.

Genres: Religion, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History

296 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1987

About the author

Walter Burkert was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US.

Reviews

[Heather O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to study the foundations of ritual or pre-Christian religion. It provides in-depth insight into the structure and social reasoning of ritual from some of the most trusted scholars on the subject.

This book begins with an introduction by Burton Mack which in itself is fairly comprehensive (and 70 pages long). Then, the meat and potatoes of the book begins which covers religion, ritual, the purpose of the scapegoat, and the detail provided is easy to read.

[Annika Nordquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe my favorite Girard so far? I’m separately a tremendous fan of Walter Burkert, so it was really fascinating to see them in conversation. Burkert’s essay in particular was phenomenal; I loved the way he treated Saussure, and his back and forth with Girard. Jonathan Smith, on the other hand, was so self-absorbed and predictable as to be essentially comic relief. But his inclusion really brought out some of Girard’s best on the importance and utility of addressing questions about origins, sacrifice, etc.

[John Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite the collection of elite intellectuals, so it's entirely possible I missed the point. But I think this was an attempt to reconcile each theorist's position with the others--are the violent origins attributable to the same logos, ethos, and pathos? Toward the end, it seemed they weren't even completely agreed as to whether what they were talking about were in fact 'origins.' I was, frankly, never quite certain of what JZS was or was not advocating in response to the other two (of even if he was at all), but as credible as all of their positions seemed (and admittedly I'm avowedly Girardian), I'm ultimately not convinced they weren't talking about distinct phenomena (and I'm sure they are all very concerned about my irresolution lo these 40 years later now that they all have shuffled off of this mortal plane).

[Jessica Zu · Rating 4 out of 5]

only read the assigned chapter, interesting but a bit euro-centric.

[Philippe Malzieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

René Girard is one of the most important thinker of the world. We call him the Silicon Valley philosoph. In Stanford, it had as student the net-economy elite.
The interest of this book is that it is polyphonic. There is resume of Girard's thèses. Then, various researchers brings contradiction to him.
In spite of the relevant objections against the mimesis, I must recognize that the contradictors did not convince. For me, the scientific rigour of hard sciences are not very applicable to soft sciences.
The limits of the mimesis are not with the weakness of the method but with nature of its object: human.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm only twenty pages into this book, so I can't say much about it yet, but Burton Mack does a great job of providing a clear-eyed critical summary of Girard's theory (as it was in 1987) in the introduction.