Avesta as "Fragments Tahmuras"; and the "Hadokht Nask" "volume of the scriptures" with two fragments of eschatological significance. Only texts preserved in the Avestan language count as scripture and are part of the Avesta. Several other secondary works are nonetheless crucial to Zoroastrian theology and scholarship. The most notable among the Middle Persian texts are the "Dēnkard" ("Acts of Religion"), dating from the ninth century; the "Bundahishn" ("Primordial Creation"), finished in the eleventh or twelfth century, but containing older material; the "Mainog-i-Khirad" ("Spirit of Wisdom"), a religious conference on questions of faith; and the "Book of Arda Viraf", which is especially
Violence and the Sacred Sacred" has been seen as hostile to religion. Violence and the Sacred Violence and the Sacred () is a 1972 book by the French anthropologist René Girard. The book received both positive and mixed reviews. "Violence and the Sacred" was written while Girard was distinguished professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Girard was influenced by the work of Georges Bataille. Girard discusses the ritual role of sacrifice. He reevaluates Sigmund Freud's "Totem and Taboo" (1913), writing that while it has been widely rejected, he views the work differently. He notes that Freud's concept of collective murder