The classicist Norman O. Brown, the journalist Joseph Bottum, the theologian Leo D. Lefebure, and the philosopher Roger Scruton, have seen "Violence and the Sacred" as a work that expresses or points toward a Christian religious perspective. Brown maintained that Girard's purpose in "Violence and the Sacred" is to frighten people into returning to orthodox religion and that Pope John Paul II liked the book. According to Bottum, while literary critics gave the book "ecstatic reviews", many reviewers missed "the implications of Christian revelation" it contains. Bottum described the book as one of a series of works, including "Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World", in which Girard discusses the cultural role of the scapegoat. He believed that they cost Girard some of "the influence in American and European academic circles that he gained in the 1960s and 1970s". He attributed the decline of Girard's influence on literary criticism to his increasingly obvious interest in biblical revelation following the publication of "Violence and the Sacred".