Charles Bellinger

My new book, The Kierkegaard-Girard Option , is now available. It was published by Mercer University Press, and can be purchased from their website or Amazon.com. Description: In an age of sharply increasing cultural polarization that has led many people to consider retreat into enclaves of the like-minded, this book seeks to persuade its readers that we need better quality conversations across ideological camps, and that the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and René Girard provide very effective tools for facilitating such conversations. The writings of Kenneth Burke are also drawn on, as an important bridge figure who influenced Girard. All three thinkers can lead us to careful reflections on the psychological and social roots of violent behavior, which is a crucially important topic in need of deeper and broader understanding. Disagreements among people of differing worldviews tend to descend quickly into shrill shouting matches, as Alasdair Madntyre predicted in After Virtue ; bu