Theology of Sacrifice Research Papers (original) (raw)

The use of sacrificial language is a given widely certified by the first Christian authors to describe the redeeming death of Christ and of Christian moral behavior. This article aims to highlight the hermeneutical strategies employed in dissociating the sacrifice of Christ and of Christians from the connections with Jewish ritual and pagan superstition. From the Patristic period onwards, it is therefore possible to find some criteria to offer to today’s theological research on the use of the references to the world of sacrifices in the proclamation of the faith and that of Christian morals.

- by Robert Hinckley
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- Theology, Liturgy, Ritual, Hebrew Bible

Atonement (kpr) as it is defined within the Levitical system is often conceived of in a manner which is roughly correct in terms of its gist, but quite mistaken in terms of its specifics. It can more accurately, I believe, be summarised as follows. (1) The purpose of the sacrificial system is not, for the most part, to deal with ‘moral transgressions’, but to purify the Tabernacle (and those associated with it) when a very specific type of transgression occurs, namely an unintentional transgression or a transgression of a ceremonial nature. (2) The blood of OT sacrifices is not normally applied to ‘sinners’; rather, it is applied to those who serve in the Tabernacle, or to the vessels or altar of the Tabernacle, or to the Tabernacle itself. As mentioned above, its primary concern is the purification of God’s sacred space. (3) The sins of believers are completely forgiven in the OT; hence, David can confidently proclaim, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does [the LORD] remove our transgressions from us”, and Paul can ground the doctrine of justification in David’s statements of his forgiveness (Rom. 4.7-8 cf. Psa. 32.1-2). The OT believer does not obtain forgiveness through sacrifices (or even through ‘sacrifices infused with Christ’s power’). He obtains forgiveness in exactly the same way as the NT believer, namely through faith in God insofar as God has revealed himself. (4) The sense in which the OT sacrificial system foreshadows the sacrifice of Christ is, therefore, as follows: just as specific animal sacrifices put right specific ‘ceremonial issues’ in OT times, so now Christ’s sacrifices deal with all sin, be it ceremonial or moral, intentional or unintentional. As such, Christ’s is a better sacrifice than the OT’s in every conceivable way.

- by James Bejon
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- Christianity, Theology, New Testament, Systematic Theology

This thesis documents the first Australian research to interview women about their experiences of domestic violence after catastrophic disaster. As such research is rare in developed countries, it addresses a gap in the disaster literature. Interviews with 30 women in two shires in Victoria confirmed that domestic violence increased following the Black Saturday bushfires on 7th February, 2009. The scant research that exists internationally indicates that not only is the notion of ‘women and children first’ a myth, but that women are disproportionally affected by disasters primarily as a result of their poverty relative to men and prescribed gender roles. This research found that women experiencing increased male violence were silenced in preference of supporting suffering men – men who had been heroes in the fires or were traumatised or unemployed as a result of the disaster. The silencing was evident in the lack of statistics on domestic violence in the aftermath of Black Saturday, the neglect of this issue in recovery and reconstruction operations, and the responses to women’s reports of violence against them by legal, community and health professionals. Three broad explanations for increased domestic violence after Black Saturday are identified – drawn from empirical findings from the field and the research literature. Theoretical concepts from two disparate fields – sacrifice and male privilege – help to explain a key finding that women’s right to live free from violence is conditional. Indeed, the aftermath of Black Saturday presents Australians with the opportunity to see how deeply embedded misogyny is and how fragile our attempts to criminalise domestic violence and hold violent men accountable for their actions. The post-disaster period – characterised as it is by men in uniforms on the ground working, saving, rescuing and restoring; powerful imagery about the role of wives and mothers; increased violence by men; mandatory care-loads for women; and the suffering of good men – presents fertile ground for the fortification of male hegemony. Yet, post-disaster change does not have to be regressive, reinstating and reinforcing the traditional inequitable structure – a structure that has high costs for men and women. An emergency management response to disaster that has embedded gender equity at all levels, together with education of communities on the contribution of strict gender roles to suffering in disaster’s aftermath, could exemplify and hasten a more equal society where men’s violence against women is rare.

- by Debra Parkinson
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- Gender Studies, Sex and Gender, Masculinity Studies, Disaster risk management

A critical review of The Day the Revolution Began by Tom Wright. Key words: N T Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, critical review, atonement theology, OT narrative & allusion, propitiation, divine wrath, Gospels, substitutionary atonement, Wright’s treatment of the terms hilastērion and dikaiosynē, and the need for ‘whole Bible theology’.

- by James Bejon
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- Theology, New Testament, Systematic Theology, Biblical Studies

Miracles are wonderful events from holy scripture. What would it be like to witness one, to experience one in defiance of natural law? We all have a personal decision to make regarding the miracles we find in the Bible, don’t we? We can choose to believe in miracles and the suspension of natural law, or not. We choose one path or the other. Each has its own obligations. A miracle, by definition, is a suspension of natural law and cannot be purposefully duplicated – except by God – so chances are you’ve never actually witnessed a miracle and must make a conscious decision to believe miracles actually occur. That decision takes faith. On the other hand, if you choose not to believe in miracles, you must then wonder what they really mean and how they function when you come across them in scripture. Belief takes faith. No questions are asked. Skepticism demands further inquiry...

- by Richard Faussette
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- Christianity, Psychology of Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology

"The story known most often as either Le Tumbeor Nostre Dame (Our Lady's Tumbler) or Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (The juggler or The jongleur of Notre Dame) has be~n a minor but enduring component of Western European and American culture since the' late nineteenth century. Whereas most medieval narratives that have exercised much influence have been familiar at least intermittently since Romanticism or even earlier, this one attracted note only from 1873. But fro in that year it has occupied a place continuously in literature, as well as eventually in art, music, radio, television, and cinema. Its reception for the first few decades owed to its innate qualities, to particularities of the historical circumstances that would have predisposed audiences to the meanings they detected in it, and to the serendipity that a host of major scholars, authors, composers, performers, and artists gravitated to it and reworked it. Over ·the past half century, it has benefited from sporadic reworkings in high culture, but it has also earned a niche in mass culture, where information about its medieval origins has often become blurred. Tracking the varied fate of Le Tumbeor Nostre Dame (as I will designate the medieval tale) allows major insights not only into the reception of medieval tales but also into the very nature of story."

- by Jan Ziolkowski
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- Comparative Literature, Medieval Literature, Late Middle Ages, Performance Studies

Eid-ul-Adha is one of the main issues that divide the Muslims all over the globe. There are those who celebrate it according to the local moon sighting and then there are those who celebrate it on the day the pilgrims perform the sacrifice. Last year (1435 AH) Muslims in India celebrated Eid-al-Adha on four different days, October 4, 5, 6, 7, 2014. The issue at hand is if Eid-ul-Adha is independent of Hajj or is linked with it. This paper makes a case for celebrating it with the pilgrims.

Victimization as a form of sacrificial ritual is discussed. It is understood as an inferior and archaic method of ego emancipation by which the transgressor's unconscious suffering is transferred to the victim. Transfer of sin and guilt... more

- by Mats Winther
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- Religion, Christianity, Psychoanalysis, Mythology

A survey of English translations of Zechariah 14:21 will yield two diverse interpretive conclusions of the text. This difference is founded on how the Hebrew word כְּנַעֲנִי is to be understood within the context. Some opt for the meaning of one who is “a merchant” while others maintain that the word is to be understood as referring to a “Canaanite.” The issue is not merely a lexical one but a theological one. The implications of the interpretive choice effect both the interpretation of the text itself and the theological emphasis of the book as a whole. This thesis will defend the view that “Canaanite” is Zechariah’s intended meaning. This view will be defended by a six-fold accumulative investigation of the text. The six investigative perspectives will be expositional, lexical, structural, chronological, typological, and Biblical Theology. The work will be divided into seven parts with the full Bibliography attached to the last section.

La teologia considera l'eucaristia come sacrificio a causa del suo rapporto con la morte di Cristo. Seguendo la Tradizione, invece, le antiche anafore consideravano l'eucaristia (= anafora) come sacrificio perché preghiera di azione di... more

- by Enrico Mazza
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- Eucharistic Theology, Theology of Sacrifice, Eucharistic Anaphora, Egyptian Church
- by Roland Millare
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- Liturgical Studies, Liturgy, Eucharist, Dogmatic theology

According to the rules that govern Roman religion, a white sacrificial animal is offered to a celestial or earth god, while infernal divinities receive a black one. Moreover, each deity is pleased by the immolation of an animal belonging to the same sex: male animals to gods, female ones to goddesses. What happens when those rules are not followed? We examine the regular and -mainly- the irregular cases and see why those particular divinities do nοt follow the general rule that the animal’s nature should be conform to the god’s one. We propose a new theory, based on the notion that they are reminisces from the era when the deities were asexual. We reinforce this interpretation by providing examples of sex perturbations in Roman religion (androgynous, bisexual and biform divinities, which are often related to human procreation and nature’s fertility). A minor examination concernσ the other sacrificial rule’s rare deviations, such as offerings of opposite colored or even red animals.

- by Dimitris Mantzilas
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- Religion, Gender Studies, Sex and Gender, Animal Science

Current atonement debates usually revolve around models and metaphors (Christus victor, penal substitution, etc.). However, another lesser-known debate regarding the sequence of the atonement has raged at least since Faustus Socinus argued in 1578 that Christ accomplished atonement not on the cross, but via his post-resurrection appearance and self-offering in heaven. This debate, moreover, has received new life in the recent work of David Moffitt (Atonement and the Logic of the Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews; 2011), who adheres closely to the Socinian view. For those seeking to close the gap between biblical and theological scholarship, both Socinus’s anti-Trinitarian approach and Moffitt’s narrowly historical approach remain problematic even though they present strong arguments for their interpretation of particular texts. What is needed, then, is an appraisal of the Socinian perspective that takes their exegesis seriously but does so in conversation with the broader New Testament witness and its theological implications. This essay puts both exegetical and theological questions on display; it does not attempt to answer all of these questions, but rather suggests a number of ways in which the next phase of the discussion ought to engage them.

- by Michael Kibbe
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- Biblical Theology, The Letter to the Hebrews, Theology of Sacrifice, Priesthood
- by Francesca Prescendi Morresi
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- Religion, Classics, Divination, Anthropology of Food

Proceedings edited by. J. Houben, J. Rotaru, M. Witzel.

This paper was originally presented at the 2016 summer theology program of the St. Albert the Great Center in Norcia, Italy. The theme of the program was St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews, and the purpose of this talk was to explore the theme of sacrifice, which is very prominent in the Letter to the Hebrews, by contrasting St. Thomas Aquinas's understanding of Christ's sacrifice against the Protestant theory of penal substitution.

- by John P Joy
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- Thomas Aquinas, The Atonement, Theology of Sacrifice, Martin Luther

In this paper presented at the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC, November 2013, the author proposes answers to questions which have puzzled scholars since the 19th century concerning the enigmatic recumbent Mesoamerican figure known as the "chacmool", so named by French adventurer and photographer Augustus Le Plongeon. While most scholars are convinced that chacmools were a genuine innovation for a specific type of sacrificial altar for the placement of an offering bowl, several key questions have remained: (1) What was the culture and place of origin of this remarkable sculptural innovation? (2) Who were these male figures? (3) What is the origin and meaning of the challenging recumbent pose for these human figures with the unblinking, enigmatic gaze? (4) What were they, and what were they called, or described with a phrase, in any Mesoamerican language? Based on recent archaeological discoveries, the author presents a new interpretation of the "chacmool" as the elite "hip ulama" ball game ballplayer stylistically rendered in a serene and formalized ritual “por abajo” stance, well after the game is over, to play the final role as the recipient of the sacrifices. With this new interpretation the author hopes to open the door to finding the indigenous name or description of the "chacmool".

- by John B Carlson
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- Religion, Native American Religions, Comparative Religion, Mythology And Folklore

In this article, the author discusses the concept of priesthood which is linked to sacrifices as per Saint Thomas Aquinas and Pope Joseph Ratzinger who discussed it in a paper presented at the Fontgombault Liturgical Conference in July 2011. Topics discussed include satisfaction and sacrifices as cause of salvation, priests' role as a mediator between God and people, and equality of love for God with sacrifices for satisfying needs of the people.

- by John P Joy
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- Thomas Aquinas, Eucharist, Theology of Sacrifice, Theology of Joseph Ratzinger

The importance of the λειτουργία in the life of the Church, because the Liturgy is the force of the Catholic Church. The study is about some words, studying the importance of the Sacrifice of Jesus from the Holy Bible, the teaching of the... more

The understanding of Jesus’ death on the cross as a sacrifice of atonement is based on the multiple interpretations of Jesus’ death in the New Testament. The early Christian approaches to the interpretation of Jesus’ death as a sacrifice... more

Philo has often been said to "spiritualize" sacrifice. I argue here not only that this conception is misleading but that Philo can be said to "materialize" sacrifice, in that despite assumptions to the contrary "sacrifice" was not an obvious or stable concept in antiquity. Philo is also dedicated to the material practice of the cult, and his work assumes and theorizes the value of this ritual performance

This paper will explore the biblical concept of covenant with an eye to demonstrating the covenantal character of the sacraments in the mystagogical catechesis of a few of the Eastern fathers and the Byzantine rite. I will do this by first showing the basis for covenant renewal in the weekly Sabbath. I will then discuss covenant making and covenant renewal and how these take place in the context of the post-Exilic Temple cult. It will next be shown how Jesus establishes New Covenant rituals, particularly in the Eucharist. Finally, it will be seen how the covenantal character of these rituals is drawn out in the Eastern fathers.

- by Jeremy Priest
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- Covenant Theology, Baptism, Eucharist, Theology of Sacrifice

This paper is a biblical theology of praise. It examines the broad ancient Near Eastern background that informs the praise of God in the OT, which in turn sheds light on the significance of praise in the NT. The focus of the paper is on what Claus Westermann has called declarative praise: praise that is offered to God in response to acts of deliverance. It assesses, advances, and extends the work of Gary A. Anderson, James Kugel, and others who have written on the cultic significance of praise. The conclusion of the comparative study of the ANE with the OT is that praise to God in the OT amounts to an offering of one’s self as a living sacrifice to Yahweh. This is then traced through to the NT with implications for the importance of praise in the life of contemporary Christian believers. Among other things this thesis highlights the importance of praise for Christians, and somewhat undercuts the standard distinction between worshipping God with our lips and with our lives.

- by Mark Giacobbe
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- Biblical Theology, Ancient Near East, Theology of Sacrifice, Studies on worship

D’après une scholie à la Troisième Olympique de Pindare, à l’occasion des fêtes des Théoxénies, les dieux étaient censés se rendre dans les cités des mortels et s’asseoir à leur table, manger comme eux et avec eux, ainsi qu’ils le faisaient autrefois et ailleurs, au temps de l’âge d’or et dans les pays mythiques des confins. Les cités d’accueil jouaient pour leur part sur les valeurs de la commensalité et des xeniai divines, tout en forgeant l’image d’un rituel communautaire apparemment à la portée de tous et qui donnait du prestige à la cité hospitalière et ouverte à tous, citoyens et étrangers de toute espèce. Si l’on juge d’après les tableaux poétiques des Théoxénies delphiques que peint Pindare, il ressort de toute évidence que l’enjeu était important, même si on n’y entrevoit que son pan symbolique, vu le penchant pindarique pour l’évocation, par un anachronisme délibéré, des pratiques héroïques liées à l’hospitalité. Partant de ces témoignages littéraires, cet article s’intéresse aux procédures et aux différentes manières dont les Delphiens ont assimilé ces fêtes dans leur vaste réseau de festins communautaires afin de renouer avec un passé mythique– source assurée d’identité politique et religieuse -, tout en consacrant le prestige croissant et la vocation panhellénique de la cité- sanctuaire.

- by Gabriela Cursaru
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- Ancient History, Mythology, Classics, Greek Literature

LA SAINTETE DES PRETRES, LEURS DEVOIRS
(Lévitique 21 :1-24)

This paper will consider child sacrifice as seen within the narrative of Abraham’s putative sacrifice of Isaac his son, Binding of Isaac ( Akeida Yitzḥak) , and from that incident extrapolate on the moral uncertainty at the centre of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This paper will consider the essential moral contradictions of these religions in contrast to their claims to morality, viewing as a consequence Natural Morality, God as the moral force and the origins of morality in god. This paper will in addition consider the widespread use of child sacrifice, even amongst the Hebrews, particularly in Canaan and Greece. The moral ramifications of child sacrifice and its apparent cessation will also be confronted within the context of events on Mount Moriah.

- by stanley wilkin
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- Religion, Abrahamic Religions, History, Ancient History

Immer wieder begegnet in der Alltagssprache, aber auch in der Forschung eine unhinterfragte Gleichsetzung von »Martyrium« mit »Selbstopfer« oder es ist die Rede von »Märtyrern«, die sich zum »Opfer« gebracht haben. Dagegen wirft der Beitrag einen Blick in die Entstehungszeit der Märtyrerterminologie und stellt heraus,
wie differenziert voneinander die beiden Begriffsfelder im antiken Verständnis angenommen werden müssen. Er untersucht anhand früher christlicher Texte, in welchen Zusammenhängen der Hinrichtungstod von Jesusanhängern im zweiten Jahrhundert als »Martyrium« und als »Opfer« beschrieben wird und welche zeitgenössischen Diskurse dadurch entweder affirmiert oder abgelehnt werden. Dabei wird deutlich, wie die christliche Umdeutungsleistung das Verständnis von »Opfer« erweitert und die Verwendung des Begriffs in neuen Kontexten möglich gemacht hat.

Throughout the history of the human experience, an intricate phenomenon seems to repeatedly occur and evolve at the intersecting lines of time, culture, and philosophy with one of the only static factors of the act remaining in the namesake of such an action. The action is nearly impossible to define adequately because of the limitations which conflict when any one language is chosen to articulate the subject. In addition, be aware of the restraints, which are embedded in any individual’s ability to think and communicate subjectively. Present day Western intellectuals can easily come to misunderstand concepts due to the environment such said people have lived in. Here, I will begin to illustrate a concept and at the same time, draw a distinction between the varying dimensions of ethnography associated with the multifarious meanings classified as sacrifice.

- by Margarita Carretero González and +2
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- J. R. R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Sacrifice (Philosophy), Harry Potter

The last chapters of the Book of Ezekiel envision and describe the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. On closely examining the sacrifices that Ezekiel prescribes for festivals and "appointed times" (Ezek. 45:1646:15), we note that his descriptions do not accord with the sacrifices that the Torah lays down for those occasions. In this article, we will point out various discrepancies between the two accounts and explore the approaches taken by Jewish scholars throughout the ages in reconciling them. Regarding the animals to be sacrificed, Ezekiel prescribes a bull as a sin offering to be brought on the first, seventh and fourteenth of Nisan (in addition to the regular sacrifice made on the fourteenth). For the seven days of Passover he mandates seven bulls and seven rams as burnt offerings, and one goat as a sin offering. Ezekiel also states that the sacrifices of the seven days of Tabernacles (Sukkot) match the sacrifices of the seven days of Passover. He further ...

chapter 1 excerpt on holiness, payment, cleansing, aversion, and spiritualization

This paper traces contemporary perceptions of sacrifice in scholarly and public debates. It seeks to show how they are due to the very specific and in some ways counterintuitive interpretation the notion of sacrifice has received in... more

Карелин В. М. Человек сталинской эпохи: антропология жертвы в свете современных теорий // Грани культуры: актуальные проблемы истории и современности: Материалы VII (2011 г.) и VIII (2012 г.) межрегиональных межвузовских научных... more