Sacrifice in Pagan and Christian Antiquity
Sacrifice in Pagan and Christian Antiquity
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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9780567700391
Number of Pages: 168
Published: 22/04/2021
Width: 15.2 cm
Height: 23.2 cm
Robert J. Daly S.J. examines the concept of sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world, and discusses how the rise of bloodless Christian sacrifice, and the use of sacrificial language in reference to highly spiritualized Christian lives, would have seemed unsettling and radically challenging to the pagan mind.
Acknowledging the difficulties posed by an overwhelmingly Christian scholarly narrative around the topic of sacrifice, Daly specifically sets out to tell the non-Christian side of this story. He first outlines the pagan trajectory, and then the Jewish-Christian trajectory, before concluding with a representative series of comparisons and contrasts. Covering the concept of sacrifice in relation to prayer, ethics and morality, the rhetoric and economics of sacrificial ceremonies, and heroes and saints, Daly finishes with an estimation of how this study might inform further study of sacrifice.
Foreword
Part I: Introduction, Methodological and Hermeneutical Issues
Preliminary Notes
The History of Religions
Postmodern Approaches
The Elites in Antiquity and Christianity
What Is Sacrifice?
The Sacrificial World Confronting Ancient Christianity
Sacrifice in Human History
The Unity of the Ancient World of Sacrifice
The “End” of Paganism?
Part II: The Greco-Roman Trajectory
From Homer and Hesiod up to Heraclitus and Plato
Anaximenes
Theophrastus
Philo of Alexandria
Apollonius of Tyana
Heliodorus of Emesa
Plutarch
Lucian
Porphyry
Iamblichus
Sallust
Symmachus
Macrobius and the “End” of Paganism
Part III: The Jewish-Christian Trajectory
Preliminary Note: The Many Meanings of Sacrifice
Transitional Note
The Hebrew Scriptures
Excursus 1: “Leave your gift there before the altar” (Matthew 5:24)
Excursus 2: Spiritualization
The Christian Scriptures (New Testament)
Early Christianity
Preliminary Note: the General Situation
Excursus 3: A Trinitarian View of Sacrifice
Excursus 4: The Eucharist as Sacrifice
Part IV: Select Points of Comparison and Contrast
Prayer and Sacrifice
Divination and Sacrifice
Ethics, Morality, and Sacrifice
The Purpose of Sacrifice
The Rhetoric of Sacrifice
The “Economics” of Sacrifice
Heroes and Saints
Part V: Concluding Summary and Looking Ahead
Index of Names
Subject Index
During his long career Robert Daly has written extensively on the subject of sacrifice in the ancient Christian world, and the primary strength of this latest volume is to provide a digest of recent studies on the subject, and especially of pagan concepts of sacrifice that will be unfamiliar to most readers. He also draws a helpful distinction between elite and non-elite adherents of both pagan and Christian religions that is not usually made. This is an enormously valuable work. * Paul Bradshaw, Emeritus Professor of Liturgy, University of Notre Dame, USA * A tour de force. This is the crowning achievement of a distinguished scholar's life's work on the subject of sacrifice. Expanding his hitherto magisterial work on the Christian understanding of sacrifice and its consequences for worship, Robert Daly helps us to understand the complexity of the idea of sacrifice in the ancient western world as a whole. Meanwhile he introduces the reader to the wide range of contemporary scholarship on the subject. No serious student of sacrifice can afford to ignore this book. * John F. Baldovin, S. J. Boston College School of Theology & Ministry, USA *
