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In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says that he is revealing "things hidden from the foundation of the world."  In the same gospel he accuses "the teachers of the law" of having taken away "the key to knowledge."  René Girard takes these statements to be precisely true: the New Testament, in his view, does provide the key to knowledge by revealing both the violent origins of all human societies and the role sacrificial religion has played in inoculating these societies against this violence.  It's a theory of astonishing power and scope, and, when I first encountered it, it helped me to see the Christianity in which I had been raised in an entirely new light: no longer as a more or less doubtful body of "beliefs" but instead as a breakthrough in understanding.  In the fall of the year 2,000 I had the pleasure of spending several days with René Girard, and his wife Martha, recording interviews with René at their home on the campus of Stanford University in California.  The five shows that resulted were broadcast on Ideas early in 2001.  Several of Girard's friends and collaborators are also featured, including James Alison, Paul Dumouchel, Robert Hamerton-Kelly and Gil Baillie

Some radio series find their proper moment, others don't.  A broadcast might be a little too far ahead of the zeitgeist, or too far behind it.  But every once in a while one's timing is just right.  This series, broadcast in 1994, is an example,  and it became one of the most popular and widely appreciated things I ever did for Ideas.  It features John McKnight, a community organizer who then directed the programme in community studies at Northwestern  University's Center for  Urban Affairs, a department he had helped to create in 1969.   He has now retired from the university but remains active as a lecturer and animator.  You can follow his current activities at http://www.abundantcommunity.com/   This series lays out his thoughts on how  community is made and unmade, and I'm happy to say that the reaction it received encouraged him to collect some of his best papers and publish them as The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits (Basic Books, 1995).  Credit for the title goes to my wife Jutta Mason, who pushed me to do these shows and then suggested a name for them....