ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN SACRIFIC

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-973896-0
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 630 g

Examining the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, this collection of essays investigates the many meanings and functions of ritual sacrifice in the ancient world. The essays survey sacrificial acts, ancient theories, and literary as well as artistic depictions of sacrifice, showing that any attempt to identify a single underlying significance of sacrifice is futile. Sacrifice cannot be defined merely as a primal expression of violence, despite the frequent equation of sacrifice to religion and sacrifice to violence in many modern scholarly works; nor is it sufficient to argue that all sacrifice can be explained by guilt, by the need to prepare and distribute animal flesh, or by the communal function of both the sacrificial ritual and the meal.
As the authors of these essays demonstrate, sacrifice may be invested with all of these meanings, or none of them. The killing of the animal, for example, may take place offstage rather than in sight, and the practical, day-to-day routine of plant and animal offerings may have been invested with meaning, too. Yet sacrificial acts, or discourses about these acts, did offer an important site of contestation for many ancient writers, even when the religions they were defending no longer participated in sacrifice. Negotiations over the meaning of sacrifice remained central to the competitive machinations of the literate elite, and their sophisticated theological arguments did not so much undermine sacrificial practice as continue to assume its essential validity.
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice offers new insight into the connections and differences among the Greek and Roman, Jewish and Christian religions.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of ancient history, classical studies, religious studies, ancient Christianity, ancient Judaism, and ancient philosophy

Autoren/Hrsg.

Knust, Jennifer Wright

Varhelyi, Zsuzsanna

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Frühes Christentum, Patristik, Christliche Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Praktische Theologie Christliche Spiritualität, Christliche Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Geschichte des Judentums: Biblische & Klassische Periode

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Theorizing Sacrifice
Stanley Stowers: The Religion of Plant and Animal Offerings Versus the Religion of Meanings, Essences and Textual Mysteries.
Daniel Ullucci: Contesting the Meaning of Animal Sacrifice
David Frankfurter: Egyptian Religion and the Problem of the Category Sacrifice
William Gilders: Jewish Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function
Jonathan Klawans: Symbol, Function, Theology and Morality in the Study of Priestly Ritual
Part II: Negotiating Power through Sacrifice
Zsuzsanna Várhelyi: Political Murder and Sacrifice: From Roman Republic to Empire
Laura Nasrallah: The Embarrassment of Blood: Sacrifice and Rational Worship (I-II CE)
Michele R. Salzman: The End of Public Sacrifice: Or, Changing Definitions of Sacrifice in the Post Constantinian World?
Part III: Towards a Theology of Sacrifice
James Rives: The Theology of Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World: Origins and Developments
Fritz Graf: Rejecting Sacrifice in Imperial Times: The Treatise On Sacrifice
Philippa Townsend: Bonds of Flesh and Blood: Porphyry, Animal Sacrifice and Empire
Part IV: Imaginary Sacrifice
Kathryn McClymond: Don't Cry Over Spilled Blood
Andrew Jacobs: Passing: Jesus' Circumcision and Strategic Self-Sacrifice
Ra'anan Boustan: Confounding Blood: Jewish Narratives of Sacrifice and Violence in Late Antiquity
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Varhelyi, Zsuzsanna
Zsuzsanna Várhelyi works primarily on Roman social, cultural, and religious history. She is author of essays on Roman religion, sacrifice and ancient society, and her monograph, The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: Power and the Beyond, appeared in 2010. She is currently working on a book on Roman imperial selfhood.

Knust, Jennifer Wright
Jennifer Wright Knust is author of Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity (2005). She has held fellowships from the Henry Luce III Foundation/Association of Theological Schools and the Humanities Foundation at Boston University and is completing a book on the transmission of the Biblical story of the woman taken in adultery.

Jennifer Wright Knust is author of Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity (2005). She has held fellowships from the Henry Luce III Foundation/Association of Theological Schools and the Humanities Foundation at Boston University and is completing a book on the transmission of the Biblical story of the woman taken in adultery.

Zsuzsanna Várhelyi works primarily on Roman social, cultural, and religious history. She is author of essays on Roman religion, sacrifice and ancient society, and her monograph, The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: Power and the Beyond, appeared in 2010. She is currently working on a book on Roman imperial selfhood.