Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Violence

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1009238310
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Violence by : Candace Alcorta

Download or read book Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Violence written by Candace Alcorta and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion and violence share a complex and enduring history. Viewing violence and religion from an evolutionary perspective situates both within a broader framework of aggressive, affiliative, and signaling behaviors across species. In this work the authors review genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors that influence violence, distinguishing two types of aggression that differ in underlying physiology and intent. The use of communicative signals to delimit aggression across species is surveyed and the emergence of human symbolic ritual as a signaling system for creating alliances and promoting in-group cooperation is proposed. Using Wallace's typology of religion, this Element explores differences across religious systems in relation to socioecological variation and examines the underlying mechanisms by which religion 'works'. The use of violence as both an 'honest signal' and a mechanism for inculcating religious belief is discussed, and the use of religion to incite, validate, and justify violence is reviewed.

The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199738408
Total Pages : 564 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War by : Todd K. Shackelford

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War written by Todd K. Shackelford and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-08-23 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume synthesizes the theoretical and empirical work of leading scholars in the evolutionary sciences to produce an extensive and authoritative review of this literature.

Religion, Crime and Punishment

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319644289
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (196 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion, Crime and Punishment by : Russil Durrant

Download or read book Religion, Crime and Punishment written by Russil Durrant and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a critical discussion of the way in which religion influences: criminal and antisocial behaviour, punishment and the law, intergroup conflict and peace-making, and the rehabilitation of offenders. The authors argue that in order to understand how religion is related to each of these domains it is essential to recognise the evolutionary origins of religion as well as how genetic and cultural evolutionary processes have shaped its essential characteristics. Durrant and Poppelwell posit that the capacity of religion to bind individuals into socially cohesive ‘moral communities’ can help us to understand its complex relationship with cooperation, crime, punishment, inter-group conflict and forgiveness. An original and innovative study, this book will be of special interest to criminologists and other social scientists interested in the role of religion in crime, punishment, intergroup conflict and law.

The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199397740
Total Pages : 399 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion by : James R. Liddle

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion written by James R. Liddle and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Résumé : This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.

In the Name of God

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Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1444359134
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (443 download)

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Book Synopsis In the Name of God by : John Teehan

Download or read book In the Name of God written by John Teehan and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is one of the most powerful forces running through human history, and although often presented as a force for good, its impact is frequently violent and divisive. This provocative work brings together cutting-edge research from both evolutionary and cognitive psychology to help readers understand the psychological structure of religious morality and the origins of religious violence. Introduces a fundamentally new approach to the analysis of religion in a style accessible to the general reader Applies insights from evolutionary and cognitive psychology to both Judaism and Christianity, and their texts, to help understand the origins of religious violence Argues that religious violence is grounded in the moral psychology of religion Illustrates its controversial argument with reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the response to the attacks from both the terrorists and the President. Suggests strategies for beginning to counter the divisive aspects of religion Discusses the role of religion and religious criticism in the contemporary world. Argues for a position sceptical of the moral authority of religion, while also critiquing the excesses of the “new atheists” for failing to appreciate the moral contributions of religion Awarded Honourable Mention, 2010 Prose Awards

Understanding Violence

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642219721
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding Violence by : Lorenzo Magnani

Download or read book Understanding Violence written by Lorenzo Magnani and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-09-18 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume sets out to give a philosophical “applied” account of violence, engaged with both empirical and theoretical debates in other disciplines such as cognitive science, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, political theory, evolutionary biology, and theology. The book’s primary thesis is that violence is inescapably intertwined with morality and typically enacted for “moral” reasons. To show this, the book compellingly demonstrates how morality operates to trigger and justify violence and how people, in their violent behaviors, can engage and disengage with discrete moralities. The author’s fundamental account of language, and in particular its normative aspects, is particularly insightful as regards extending the range of what is to be understood as violence beyond the domain of physical harm. By employing concepts such as “coalition enforcement”, “moral bubbles”, “cognitive niches”, “overmoralization”, “military intelligence” and so on, the book aims to spell out how perpetrators and victims of violence systematically disagree about the very nature of violence. The author’s original claim is that disagreement can be understood naturalistically, described by an account of morality informed by evolutionary perspectives as well. This book might help us come to terms with the fact that we are intrinsically “violent beings”. To acknowledge this condition, and our stupefying capacity to inflict harm, is a responsibility we must face up to: such understanding could ultimately be of help in order to achieve a safer ownership of our destinies, by individuating and reinforcing those cognitive firewalls that would prevent violence from always escalating and overflowing.

In the Name of God

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Author :
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN 13 : 9781405183819
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (838 download)

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Book Synopsis In the Name of God by : John Teehan

Download or read book In the Name of God written by John Teehan and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2010-04-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is one of the most powerful forces running through human history, and although often presented as a force for good, its impact is frequently violent and divisive. This provocative work brings together cutting-edge research from both evolutionary and cognitive psychology to help readers understand the psychological structure of religious morality and the origins of religious violence. Introduces a fundamentally new approach to the analysis of religion in a style accessible to the general reader Applies insights from evolutionary and cognitive psychology to both Judaism and Christianity, and their texts, to help understand the origins of religious violence Argues that religious violence is grounded in the moral psychology of religion Illustrates its controversial argument with reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the response to the attacks from both the terrorists and the President. Suggests strategies for beginning to counter the divisive aspects of religion Discusses the role of religion and religious criticism in the contemporary world. Argues for a position sceptical of the moral authority of religion, while also critiquing the excesses of the “new atheists” for failing to appreciate the moral contributions of religion Awarded Honourable Mention, 2010 Prose Awards

The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190270098
Total Pages : 670 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence by : Mark Juergensmeyer

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence written by Mark Juergensmeyer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-11 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal wars to the theater of terrorism. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world. The forty original essays in this volume include overviews of major religious traditions, showing how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundations of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of violence and warfare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays also examine patterns and themes relating to religious violence, such as sacrifice and martyrdom, which are explored in cross-disciplinary or regional analyses; and offer major analytic approaches, from literary to social scientific studies. The contributors to this volume--innovative thinkers who are forging new directions in theory and analysis related to religion and violence--provide novel insights into this important field of studies. By mapping out the whole field of religion and violence, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence will prove an authoritative source for students and scholars for years to come.

Religion in Human Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674063090
Total Pages : 777 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion in Human Evolution by : Robert N. Bellah

Download or read book Religion in Human Evolution written by Robert N. Bellah and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 777 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An ABC Australia Best Book on Religion and Ethics of the Year Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. “Of Bellah’s brilliance there can be no doubt. The sheer amount this man knows about religion is otherworldly...Bellah stands in the tradition of such stalwarts of the sociological imagination as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Only one word is appropriate to characterize this book’s subject as well as its substance, and that is ‘magisterial.’” —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “Religion in Human Evolution is a magnum opus founded on careful research and immersed in the ‘reflective judgment’ of one of our best thinkers and writers.” —Richard L. Wood, Commonweal

Religion Explained

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 046500461X
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion Explained by : Pascal Boyer

Download or read book Religion Explained written by Pascal Boyer and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2007-03-21 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of our questions about religion, says renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, are no longer mysteries. We are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Religion Explained shows how this aspect of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. This brilliant and controversial book gives readers the first scientific explanation for what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and where it comes from.

Big Gods

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691169748
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Big Gods by : Ara Norenzayan

Download or read book Big Gods written by Ara Norenzayan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines how the belief in gods has lead to cooperation and sometimes conflict between groups. The author also looks at how some cooperative societies have developed without belief in gods.

Alpha God

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Author :
Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 1633880214
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis Alpha God by : Hector A. Garcia

Download or read book Alpha God written by Hector A. Garcia and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses evolutionary psychology as a lens to explain religious violence and oppression. The author, a clinical psychologist, examines religious scriptures, rituals, and canon law, highlighting the many ways in which our evolutionary legacy has shaped the development of religion and continues to profoundly influence its expression. The book focuses on the image of God as the dominant male in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This traditional God concept is seen as a reflection of the “dominant ape” paradigm so evident in the hierarchical social structures of primates, with whom we have a strong genetic connection. The author describes the main features of male-dominated primate social hierarchies— specifically, the role of the alpha male as the protector of the group; his sexual dominance and use of violence and oppression to attain food, females, and territory; in-group altruism vs. out-group hostility (us vs. them); and displays of dominance and submission to establish roles within the social hierarchy. The parallels between these features of primate society and human religious rituals and concepts make it clear that religion, especially its oppressive and violent tendencies, is rooted in the deep evolutionary past. This incisive analysis goes a long way toward explaining the historic and ongoing violence committed in the name of religion.

Understanding Violence

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9783662689912
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (899 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding Violence by : Lorenzo Magnani

Download or read book Understanding Violence written by Lorenzo Magnani and published by Springer. This book was released on 2024-08-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a philosophical account of violence, engaged with both empirical and theoretical debates in disciplines such as cognitive science, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, political theory, evolutionary biology, and theology. The primary thesis is that violence is intertwined with morality and typically enacted for “moral” reasons. To show this, the book compellingly demonstrates how morality operates to trigger and justify violence and how people, in their violent behaviors, can engage and disengage with discrete moralities. The author’s fundamental account of language, and in particular its normative aspects, is particularly insightful as regards extending the range of what is to be understood as violence beyond the domain of physical harm. By employing concepts such as “coalition enforcement”, “moral bubbles”, “cognitive niches”, “overmoralization”, and “military intelligence”, the book aims to spell out how perpetrators and victims of violence systematically disagree about the very nature of violence. The author’s original claim is that disagreement can be understood naturalistically, described by an account of morality informed by evolutionary perspectives as well. This book helps us come to terms with the fact that we are intrinsically “violent beings”. To acknowledge this condition, and our stupefying capacity to inflict harm, is a responsibility we must face up to: such understanding could ultimately be of help in order to achieve a safer ownership of our destinies, by individuating and reinforcing those cognitive firewalls that would prevent violence from always escalating and overflowing. This second edition is thoroughly revised and integrated with two new chapters to cover new aspects of violence and its understanding, such as the role of looting finance in facilitating violent outcomes and the attack to scientific cognition and human creativity.

The Evolution of Religion

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Religion by : Joseph Bulbulia

Download or read book The Evolution of Religion written by Joseph Bulbulia and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Evolution of Religion is a unique transdisciplinary volume that gathers the latest research, debates, and programmatic visions of scholars studying religion from an evolutionary perspective. Anyone interested in the relationship of evolutionary science to religion will find insight and inspiration in this striking collection of fifty short essays from a diverse group of renowned international scolars. Here, God meets Darwin, and the conversation that ensues provides fascinating reading for those seeking to make sense of religion's place in nature.

Cultural Evolution

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026255190X
Total Pages : 499 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultural Evolution by : Peter J. Richerson

Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Peter J. Richerson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars report on current research that demonstrates the central role of cultural evolution in explaining human behavior. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety of disciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Wider application of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional disciplinary boundaries. To remedy this, in this volume leading researchers from theoretical biology, developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, and economics come together to explore the central role of cultural evolution in different aspects of human endeavor. The contributors take as their guiding principle the idea that cultural evolution can provide an important integrating function across the various disciplines of the human sciences, as organic evolution does for biology. The benefits of adopting a cultural evolutionary perspective are demonstrated by contributions on social systems, technology, language, and religion. Topics covered include enforcement of norms in human groups, the neuroscience of technology, language diversity, and prosociality and religion. The contributors evaluate current research on cultural evolution and consider its broader theoretical and practical implications, synthesizing past and ongoing work and sketching a roadmap for future cross-disciplinary efforts. Contributors Quentin D. Atkinson, Andrea Baronchelli, Robert Boyd, Briggs Buchanan, Joseph Bulbulia, Morten H. Christiansen, Emma Cohen, William Croft, Michael Cysouw, Dan Dediu, Nicholas Evans, Emma Flynn, Pieter François, Simon Garrod, Armin W. Geertz, Herbert Gintis, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Daniel B. M. Haun, Joseph Henrich, Daniel J. Hruschka, Marco A. Janssen, Fiona M. Jordan, Anne Kandler, James A. Kitts, Kevin N. Laland, Laurent Lehmann, Stephen C. Levinson, Elena Lieven, Sarah Mathew, Robert N. McCauley, Alex Mesoudi, Ara Norenzayan, Harriet Over, Jürgen Renn, Victoria Reyes-García, Peter J. Richerson, Stephen Shennan, Edward G. Slingerland, Dietrich Stout, Claudio Tennie, Peter Turchin, Carel van Schaik, Matthijs Van Veelen, Harvey Whitehouse, Thomas Widlok, Polly Wiessner, David Sloan Wilson

The Emergence and Evolution of Religion

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135162069X
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis The Emergence and Evolution of Religion by : Jonathan H. Turner

Download or read book The Emergence and Evolution of Religion written by Jonathan H. Turner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-10 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by leading theorists and empirical researchers, this book presents new ways of addressing the old question: Why did religion first emerge and then continue to evolve in all human societies? The authors of the book—each with a different background across the social sciences and humanities—assimilate conceptual leads and empirical findings from anthropology, evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, neurology, primate behavioral studies, explanations of human interaction and group dynamics, and a wide range of religious scholarship to construct a deeper and more powerful explanation of the origins and subsequent evolutionary development of religions than can currently be found in what is now vast literature. While explaining religion has been a central question in many disciplines for a long time, this book draws upon a much wider array of literature to develop a robust and cross-disciplinary analysis of religion. The book remains true to its subtitle by emphasizing an array of both biological and sociocultural forms of selection dynamics that are fundamental to explaining religion as a universal institution in human societies. In addition to Darwinian selection, which can explain the biology and neurology of religion, the book outlines a set of four additional types of sociocultural natural selection that can fill out the explanation of why religion first emerged as an institutional system in human societies, and why it has continued to evolve over the last 300,000 years of societal evolution. These sociocultural forms of natural selection are labeled by the names of the early sociologists who first emphasized them, and they can be seen as a necessary supplement to the type of natural selection theorized by Charles Darwin. Explanations of religion that remain in the shadow cast by Darwin’s great insights will, it is argued, remain narrow and incomplete when explaining a robust sociocultural phenomenon like religion.

Can We Survive Our Origins?

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Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1628950358
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

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Book Synopsis Can We Survive Our Origins? by : Pierpaolo Antonello

Download or read book Can We Survive Our Origins? written by Pierpaolo Antonello and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are religions intrinsically violent (as is strenuously argued by the ‘new atheists’)? Or, as Girard argues, have they been functionally rational instruments developed to manage and cope with the intrinsically violent runaway dynamic that characterizes human social organization in all periods of human history? Is violence decreasing in this time of secular modernity post-Christendom (as argued by Steven Pinker and others)? Or are we, rather, at increased and even apocalyptic risk from our enhanced powers of action and our decreased socio-symbolic protections? Rene Girard’s mimetic theory has been slowly but progressively recognized as one of the most striking breakthrough contributions to twentieth-century critical thinking in fundamental anthropology: in particular for its power to model and explain violent sacralities, ancient and modern. The present volume sets this power of explanation in an evolutionary and Darwinian frame. It asks: How far do cultural mechanisms of controlling violence, which allowed humankind to cross the threshold of hominization—i.e., to survive and develop in its evolutionary emergence—still represent today a default setting that threatens to destroy us? Can we transcend them and escape their field of gravity? Should we look to—or should we look beyond—Darwinian survival? What—and where (if anywhere)—is salvation?