Religion, Sacrifice, and Violence

Sacrifice and violence are persistent themes in the world's religous traditions and have invited scrutiny from anthropological, sociological, psychological, political, theological and other perspectives. This course will explore some classical examples of those perspectives as well as a variety of historical and literary phenomena to which they have been applied. Readings to incldude Freud, Girard, Burkert, Marx, and Juergensmeyer, among others.