Sacrifice in Pagan and Christian Antiquity

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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.

Reviews

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 scholars lifes 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 *

Author Bio

Robert J. Daly S.J. is Professor Emeritus of Theology at Boston College, USA, and is the author of Sacrifice Unveiled (T&T Clark, 2009).