Sacrifice Unveiled
The True Meaning of Christian Sacrifice
Sacrifice Unveiled
The True Meaning of Christian Sacrifice
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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9780567034212
Number of Pages: 280
Published: 13/04/2009
Width: 15.6 cm
Height: 23.4 cm
Most ideas of sacrifice, even specifically Christian ideas, as we saw in the Reformation controversies, have something to do with deprivation or destruction. But this is not authentic Christian sacrifice. Authentic Christian sacrifice, and ultimately all true sacrifice (whether one is conscious of it or not) begins with the self-offering of the Father in the gift-sending of the Son, continues with the loving "response" of the Son, in his humanity, and in the Spirit, to the Father and for us, and finally, begins to become real in our world when human beings, in the power of the same Spirit that was in Jesus, respond to love with love, and thus begin to enter into that perfectly loving, totally self-giving relationship that is the life of the triune God.
The origins of this are in the Hebrew Bible, its revelatory high-points in Jesus and Paul, and its working out in the life of the Church, especially its Eucharistic Prayers. Special attention will be paid to the atonement, not just because atonement and sacrifice are often synonymous, but also because traditional atonement theology is the source of distortions that continue to plague Christian thinking about sacrifice.
After exploring the possibility of finding a phenomenology of sacrificial atonement in Girardian mimetic theory, the book will end with some suggestions on how to communicate its findings to people likely to be put off from the outset by the negative connotations associated with "sacrifice."
FOREWORD: The Problem of Christian Sacrifice
A brief description of how this book came about.
PART ONE: Unveiling Sacrifice
1. The Many Meanings of Sacrifice
2. A Trinitarian View of Sacrifice
3. The Sacrifice of the Mass
Conclusion
BRIDGE 1.A: Sacrifice in the Ancient World and in the Hebrew Scriptures
1. Sacrifice in the Ancient World
2. General Theory of Sacrifice
3. Sacrifice in the Hebrew Scriptures
4. From the Old Testament to the New
BRIDGE 1.B: Sacrifice in the New Testament
1. The Synoptic Gospels
2. The Acts of the Apostles
3. The Pauline Theology of Sacrifice
4. The Temple as Community in Qumran and the New Testament
5. The Epistle to the Hebrews
6. The Gospel and First Letter of John
7. The History-of-Religions Context of "Worship in Spirit and in Truth"
8. The Book of Revelation
9. Summary of New Testament Teaching on Christian Sacrifice
Excursus: Spiritualization and Institutionalization
BRIDGE 1.C: Sacrifice in the Fathers of the Church
1. The Early Writings
2. The Apologists: Justin and Athenagoras
3. Irenaeus of Lyons
4. Hippolytus of Rome
5. The Early Treatises on the Passover
6. The Second-Century Acts of the Martyrs
7. The Alexandrian Tradition I: The Antecedents: Philo and Barnabas
8. The Alexandrian Tradition II: Christianity Coming of Age: Clement and Origen
9. Augustine of Hippo
Conclusion
PART TWO: Atonement and Sacrifice: The Distorting Veils - 99
1. Paul and Problems with Sacrificial Atonement
2. Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, and Juliana of Norwich
3. The Sacrifice of the Mass
4. Sacrifice and the Reformation
BRIDGE 2.A: Post-Reformation and Modernity: Two Contrasting Poles
1. Sacrifice among the Writers of Late (Post-Enlightenment) Modernity
2. Moment-of-Consecration Theology
3. Mass-Stipend Theology: Theology in Transition
BRIDGE 2.B: Liturgical Renewal and Ecumenism
1. The Monasteries
2. Mystery Theology
3. Liturgical Conferences, Institutes, Academies and Societies
4. A High Point of Restorationism: The New Worship Books
5. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
BRIDGE 2.C: Sacrifice and Girardian Mimetic Theory: The End of Sacrifice?
1. General Introduction to Girardian Mimetic Theory
2. Grand Narratives in a Postmodern Age
3. Desire
4. Original Sin as Disordered Desire
5. Original Sin: A Scientific View
6. René Girard as Christian Theorist
7. A Phenomenology of Redemption: Imitate the Desire of Jesus
8. A Post-Scientific Epilogue
PART THREE: Unveiling Sacrifice:
This work is astounding in its breadth... remarkably accessible, and will serve specialists and non-specialists alike. I highly recommend this new work and imagine that it will be an important work for a long time to come.--Sanford Lakoff
