Central to identity, personal responsibility, economic systems, theology and political and military imaginaries, the concept of sacrifice has inspired, disturbed and abused. Mimesis and Sacrifice brings together a team of experts from the humanities and social sciences to closely examine the part sacrifice plays in different societal settings.

Inspired by Rene Girard's premise that one must address the problems of society in order to understand the mechanisms by which it functions, chapters are organised around questions emerging from Girard's mimetic theory. They explore the extent to which the social character of human living makes it mimetic and if aggression must be defused by aggressive sacrificial rituals as well as the different definitions of sacrifice, from voluntary and compelled to sacrificing oneself versus someone or something else.

By covering gender, evolutionary, theological, military and economic sacrifice in a single volume, Mimesis and Sacrifice presents a new understanding of its meaning and consequences, contributing not only to mimetic theory, but to research on the social condition of contemporary human life.