Girard urged everyone, regardless of their religious beliefs (or lack thereof), to pay attention to what happened at the crucifixion of Jesus. Girard read this story primarily as an anthropologist. What he found was human behavior operating differently than he had seen anywhere else in his reading of history.

“Each person must ask what his relationship is to the scapegoat,” wrote René Girard. “I am not aware of my own, and I am persuaded that the same holds true for my readers. We only have legitimate enmities. And yet the entire universe swarms with scapegoats.”