Theologian James Alison joined the Voices of Peace Talk Radio (formerly called Playing for Keeps) on May 4, 2012 to explore how The Hunger Games and chapter 7 of the Old Testament book of Joshua have something very important in common: a lottery in which the winners get to die for the sake of the community. Many people joined Adam and Bob in the discussion with James to explore how lotteries are used as vio ...

Does the Hunger Games offer a Christian ethic in confronting the violence of our world? In this video, Adam argues that while The Hunger Games series warns us about running our lives by the fear of death and where that fear could lead us - into violent annihilation. The Hunger Games offers that warning, but doesn't offer an alternative way to confront violence. Instead of looking to Katniss as our model, Ad ...

  My hatred of the Capitol has not lessened my hatred of my competitors in the least. - Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games, 238 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. - Jesus, Matthew 5:44 I value the loving self-sacrifice that we find in the first book of The Hunger Games series. There are two beautiful moments in the book that I think are worth exploring. The first ...

I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not. - Peeta, The Hunger Games, 141.   Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146. In spiritual terms, the Capitol in The Hunger Games is symbolic of the satanic mechanism. Here’s why –  the satanic mechanism is bas ...

I recently came across a controversial statement about peace that I’d like to discuss with you. Here it is – our desire for peace actually makes us violent. (See Rene Girard’s book Battling to the End, especially page 44.) Sounds counter-intuitive, huh?  I mean, if everyone desired peace, wouldn’t the world be a more peaceful place? Maybe not. The Hunger Games offers us a way to understand this idea I don’t ...

He made you look desirable!  - Haymitch, The Hunger Games, 135   We must understand that desire itself is … directed toward an object desired by the model.   - René Girard, Violence and the Sacred, 146. The Hunger Games presents us with a post-apocalyptic world living with a fragile peace.  (For a summary of The Hunger Games, click here.) Violence is front and center with the annual ritual called The H ...

The world runs on violence. That’s the message of the best selling book by Suzanne Collins titled The Hunger Games and it is also the message of mimetic theory. For many of us, there is a growing concern that this violence threatens our very future. As political, economic, and other forms of social oppression spread throughout the world, I’m convinced that this violence needs to be confronted. Throughout hu ...