Sacrifice in Pagan and Christian Antiquity

Description

Robert J. Daly examines sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world, showing how the rise of Christian sacrifice – which was unbloody – 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 the story. He outlines the pagan trajectory, and then the Jewish-Christian trajectory, before concluding with a representative series of comparisons and contrasts (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) and a final chapter looking ahead at how this study might inform further study of sacrifice. Cover Half title Title Copyrights Contents Foreword Part One Introduction, Methodological and Hermeneutical Issues Preliminary notes 1 The history of religions 2 Postmodern approaches 3 The elites in Antiquity and Christianity 4 What is sacrifice? 5 The sacrificial world confronting ancient Christianity 6 Sacrifice in human history 7 The unity of the ancient world of sacrifice 8 The “end” of paganism? Part Two The Greco-Roman Trajectory 1 From Homer and Hesiod up to Heraclitus and Plato 2 Anaximenes 3 Theophrastus 4 Philo of Alexandria 5 Apollonius of Tyana 6 Heliodorus of Emesa 7 Plutarch 8 Lucian 9 Porphyry 10 Iamblichus 11 Sallust 12 Symmachus 13 Macrobius and the “end” of paganism Part Three The Jewish-Christian Trajectory Preliminary note: The many meanings of sacrifice 1 General secular understanding of sacrifice 2 General religious understanding of sacrifice 3 Sacrifice in the Hebrew Scriptures 4 General Christian understanding of sacrifice 5 Specifically Catholic understanding of sacrifice 6 Authentic Christian, that is trinitarian understanding of sacrifice Transitional note 1 The Hebrew Scriptures a. The burnt offering b. Divine acceptance of sacrifice Excursus 1: “Leave your gift there before the altar” (Mt. 5:24) c. Sin offering and atonement d. The blood rite and substitution e. From the Old Testament to the New Testament f. Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls Excursus 2: Spiritualization 2 The Christian Scriptures (New Testament) a. Lack of liturgical-historical data b. Acts of the Apostles c. The gospels d. Paul and the Epistles 1 The sacrifice of Christ 2 Christians as the New Temple 3 Sacrifice of/by Christians 4 1Pet. 2:4–10 5 New Testament sacrifice is ethical 6 The Epistle to the Hebrews 3 Early Christianity Preliminary note: The general situation a. The Didache b. Clement of Rome c. Ignatius of Antioch d. Justin Martyr and Athenagoras e. Irenaeus of Lyons f. Hippolytus of Rome g. Passover treatises h. Martyrdom and sacrifice i. Philo and the Christian Alexandrian tradition j. Barnabas k. Clement of Alexandria l. Minucius Felix m. Tertullian n. Cyprian o. Origen of Alexandria p. From Origen to Augustine aa. From Lactantius to Ephrem the Syrian q. Augustine r. Origen and Augustine compared s. The cult of the martyrs and the Eucharist t. The anaphoras of the fifth century Excursus 3: A trinitarian view of sacrifice Excursus 4: The Eucharist as sacrifice Part Four Select Points of Comparison and Contrast 1 Prayer and sacrifice 2 Divination and sacrifice 3 Ethics, morality, and sacrifice 4 The purpose of sacrifice 5 The rhetoric of sacrifice 6 The “economics” of sacrifice 7 Heroes and saints Part Five Concluding Summary and Looking Ahead Index of Names Subject Index