Lots of interesting and varied resources this week! Take a look at Paul Nuechterlein's comments at Girardian Reflections, including this exegetical note:
Very important to a Girardian reading of this crucial passage is the idea that the God at the beginning of the passage who demands the sacrifice from Abraham is a different God from the one at the end who stops it. This possible reading actually has warrant in the text! Elohim is the name used for God in vs. 1, 3, 8, 9, and twelve. In crucial vs. 11 and 14, however, the name for God is Yahweh only (not even the common combined form of Yahweh Elohim, "LORD God"). Here is the JPS Tanakh translation of Gen. 22:11-14: Then an angel of the LORD [Yahweh] called to him from heaven: "Abraham! Abraham!" And he answered, "Here I am." 12 And he said, "Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God [Elohim], since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me." 13 When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that site Adonai [Yahweh]-yireh, whence the present saying, "On the mount of the LORD [Yahweh] there is vision." Is this story trying to sort out the gods? Abraham begins hearing the common tribal gods of ancient polytheism who demand human sacrifices. On the mount of Yahweh-yireh, however, he begins to hear and envision the one true God who wants us to stop that nonsense. At Journey with Jesus, Dan Clendenin reminds us of Kierkegaard's scenarios for the context of this story. He concludes: Abraham had to act as a solitary individual, with no guarantees or clarity, knowing that he might be horribly wrong and deeply deceived by himself or others, knowing that his actions would merit the opprobrium of his family and community, knowing that his act would be irreversible, and contrary to everyday standards of ethics and rationality. In his radical obedience, Abraham "worked out his salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12–13), with palpable dread and humility, before a God who asks everything, absolutely everything, of us. Although this is a commentary on Hebrews, 11:17, in "On a Wild and Windy Mountain," William Willimon speaks about the sacrifice of Isaac. Instead of seeing Abraham's actions as different from our own, he wonders how we do similar sacrifices of our children for our own "gods." The article, from 1983, is a bit dated in its illustrations, but certainly is still relevant.
Another resource not to be missed is "Isaac: A Reflection on Genesis 22" by William Loader of Murdoch University.
You can find some interesting background on interpretation of this text at "The Sacrifice of Isaac in Qumran Literature," Joseph A Fitzmyer, in Biblica, 2002.
Also, check out "The Zeal of Phinehas: The Bible and the Legitimation of Violence," by John J Collines in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 2003. This is one large .pdf file, which may take awhile to download over slow connections.
"At a time when the Western world is supposedly engaged in a war on terrorism, it may be opportune to reflect on the ways in which the Bible appears to endorse and bless the recourse to violence, and to ask what the implications may be for the task of biblical interpretation." One final resource not to be missed is Doug Adams' "Living with Wounded Families." "In 1978, Segal completed Abraham and Isaac: In Memory of May 4, 1970, Kent State after he was commissioned to do a memorial about the national guard killing of four Kent State University students who were protesting the American bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The sculpture not only portrays the moment when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22) but also (because the Isaac is sculpted as a college-aged young man) reminds us of the generation gap which pitted so many anti-war college students against their parents who supported the Vietnam war."