Hamerton-Kelly's work was not limited to pastoral study; his interest in religious violence led him to the work of fellow Stanford professor René Girard, where he became an advocate for Girard's theory of mimetic desire, in which imitation of others is the source of all human conflict, with conflict resolved through the use of a scapegoat and the introduction of religion. Hamerton-Kelly's Christian perspective in the subject led him to write several books which interpret New Testament writings from a Girardian perspective: these include " Sacred Violence: Paul's Hermeneutic of the Cross", published in 1992; and "The Gospel and the Sacred: Poetics of Violence in Mark", published in 1994.