Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World presents a highly original global theory of culture. Here, in his greatest work, René Girard explores the function of violence, mimetic desire and the mechanism of the scapegoat, in the history of society and religion. Girard's vision is a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, philosophy and psychoanalysis.

René Girard's landmark study of religion and culture, now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series.

BOOK I: FUNDAMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGYChapter 1: The Victimage Mechanism as the Basis of ReligionAcquisitive Mimesis and Mimetic Rivalry; The Function of the Law: Prohibiting Imitation; The Function of Ritual: Imperative Mimesis; Sacrifice and the Victimage Mechanism; The Theory of ReligionChapter 2: The Development of Culture and InstitutionsVariants in Ritual; Sacred Kingship and Central Power; The Polyvalence of Ritual and the Specificity of Institutions; The Domestication of Animals and Ritual Hunting; SexualProhibitions and the Principle of Exchange; Death and Funeral RitesChapter 3: The Process of HominizationPosing the Problem; Ethology and Ethnology; The Victimage Mechanism and Hominization; The Transcendental SignifierChapter 4: Myth: The Invisibility of the Founding MurderThe 'Radical Elimination'; 'Negative Connotation', 'Positive Connotation'; Physical Signs of the Surrogate VictimChapter 5: Texts of PersecutionPersecution Demystified: The Achievement of the Modern and Western World; The Double Semantic Sense of the Word 'Scapegoat'; The Historical Emergence of the Victimage MechanismBOOK II: THE JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURESChapter 1: Things hidden since the Foundation of the WorldSimilarities between the Biblical Myths and World Mythology; The Distinctiveness of the Biblical Myths; The Gospel Revelation of the Founding MurderChapter 2: A Non-Sacrificial Reading of the Gospel TextChrist and Sacrifice; The Impossibility of the Sacrificial Reading; Apocalypse and Parable; Powers and Principalities; The Preaching of the Kingdom; Kingdom and Apocalypse; The Non-Sacrificial Death of Christ; The Divinity of Christ; The Virgin BirthChapter 3: The Sacrificial Reading and Historical ChristianityImplications of the Sacrificial Reading; The Epistle to the Hebrews; The Death of Christ and the End of the Sacred; Sacrifice of the Other and Sacrifice of the Self; The Judgement of Solomon; A New Sacrificial Reading: The Semiotic Analysis; The Sacrificial Reading and History; Science and ApocalypseChapter 4: The Logos of Heraclitus and the Logos of JohnThe Logos in Philosophy; The Two Types of Logos in Heidegger; Defining the Johannine Logos in Terms of the Victim; 'In the Beginning . . .'; Love and KnowledgeBOOK III: INTERDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGYChapter 1: Mimetic DesireAcquisitive Mimesis and Mimetic Desire; Mimetic Desire and the Modern World; The Mimetic Crisis and the Dynamism of Desire; The Mimesis of Apprenticeship and the Mimesis ofRivalry; Gregory Bateson's 'Double Bind'; From ObjectRivalry to Metaphysical DesireChapter 2: Desire without ObjectDoubles and Interdividuality; Symptoms of Alternation; The Disappearance of the Object and Psychotic Structure;Hypnosis and PossessionChapter 3: Mimesis and SexualityWhat is known as 'Masochism'; Theatrical 'Sado-Masochism'; Homosexuality; Mimetic Latency and Rivalry; The End of Platonism in PsychologyChapter 4: Psychoanalytic MythologyFreud's Platonism and the Use of the Oedipal Archetype; How do you reproduce a Triangle?; Mimesis and Representation; The Double Genesis of Oedipus; Why Bisexuality?;Narcissism: Freud's Desire; The Metaphors of DesireChapter 5: Beyond ScandalProust's Conversion; Sacrifice and Psychotherapy; Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Structural Psychoanalysis; The DeathInstinct and Modern Culture; The SkandalonTo ConcludeNotesBibliographyIndex