John Caruana

Animal Sacrifice and the Death Penalty

“Writing in the wake of an influential group of scholars concerned with sacrifice—Walter Burkert, René Girard, Jean-Pierre Vernant, and Marcel Detienne—Ghisalberti revisits some of our founding narratives in order to shine light on fundamental assumptions that have remained, conveniently, unquestioned to our day. Whether it is the creation story of Genesis, Cain, Prometheus, or the death of Socrates, Ghisalberti’s masterly reframing of these stories unearths dynamics that continue to impact us today.”