Robert Hamerton-Kelly

Robert Hamerton-Kelly was Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University, and the president emeritus of Imitatio Inc., an organization that furthers the study of mimetic theory. As Dean of Chapel and Consulting Professor, he was a full member of the Stanford Faculty. He lectured in Religious Studies, in the Greek section of the Classics, and in the Ethics of International Security in general (Just War Theory and the proper use of military force) and the ethics of nuclear weapons in particular (Deterrence), in the department of Political Science. He retired early from Stanford in 1997 to become Senior Minister of the Woodside Village Church in the vicinity of Stanford, retiring in 2004. Since retirement he continues to host a biweekly seminar with René Girard on the theme of Religion and Violence. He is one of three founding members of the COV&R , and is the author of Pre-existence, Wisdom and the Son of Man ( Cambridge, 1973 / 2004) and Sacred Violence (Fortress, 1992). He has edited Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation (Stanford, 1986) and Politics and Apocalypse (Michigan, 2007).