Girard's most famous book, Violence and the Sacred, was an anthropological analysis of ancient religion and myth that seemed to presage a similar treatment in the future for Christianity as well. It won him admiration from thinkers who saw his work as a general deconstruction of religion, a welcome contribution to a general critical analysis of all human institutions in terms of underlying relations of power, violence, and domination. However, one such thinker, Michel Foucault, reproached Girard for his insistent concern with violence and sacrifice: "It is not necessary to build an entire
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