Sacrifice and Modern Thought

290 Pages·2013·1.828 MB·English

by  Julia Meszaros, Johannes Zachhuber

SACRIFICE AND MODERN THOUGHT
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Sacrifi ce and
Modern Th ought
EDITED BY
JULIA MESZAROS
AND
JOHANNES ZACHHUBER
1
1
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Preface

Recent scholarship has increasingly brought to mind the extent of the impact
religious and theological ideas have had on all aspects of modern European cul-
ture. Th e very diversity of this infl uence, which touches on philosophical and
scientifi c theories as much as on literature, music, art, and architecture means
that its interpretation and appreciation today needs interdisciplinary collabo-
ration. Th e present collection of essays is the product of one such attempt. Th e
contributors seek to explore together ways in which the perception of, and
ideas about, sacrifi ce have developed since the beginning of early modernity
and how they have in their turn shaped various cultural practices. Few other
religious ideas would invite such study in quite the same way. Sacrifi ce has
always arrested the European mind partly because of its controversial assess-
ment in Christian theology, partly because of its central importance for Greek
tragedy, partly because of its evident centrality to so many diff erent historical
religions.
W hile our collaboration, which stretches back to an initial series of events
in 2008/9, has helped us widen our individual disciplinary scope, it has also
repeatedly exposed the diffi culties any such attempt encounters: the discipli-
nary context within which each of us work determines not only the selection
of reality that we study, but oft en also imposes normative or quasi-normative
assumptions about this reality and consequently about the methodologies
most suitable to understanding it.
Th e resulting volume therefore does not present a single narrative of sac-
rifi ce in modernity. Rather, we respect the variety and polyphony of contem-
porary approaches to religion and to its presence in human culture but at the
same time seek to engage them in conversation. In this process we were able
to discover many areas of commonality, oft en surprising overlaps and mutual
interferences between individual areas of specialization. While then the book
does not claim to present a single story let alone a single theory of sacrifi ce and
modern thought, it aims at more than a display of the diff erent forms of con-
temporary scholarly engagement with sacrifi ce. Without imposing on them a
unity they do not possess, the book hopes to show them as interlocking and
mutually illustrative endeavours to come to an understanding of the complex
phenomenon that is European modernity.
Th e editors could not have produced this book without the help of many
individuals and institutions. Th e original research for this book was funded by
the British Academy. A crucial editorial meeting of all contributors was only
made possible by the generous support of Oxford’s John Fell Fund. Trinity
College proved a splendid host to all events that took place in preparation of
vi Preface
the fi nal publication. Most important, however, was the constant willingness
of so many colleagues to devote their valuable time and intellectual energy to
this project. Th is book is far more than the sum of its parts, and we are very
conscious at this point how much we owe to the advice, criticism, feedback,
and stimulation we received from all individual contributors.
From a publisher’s point of view, an edited volume inevitably causes some
concern, so we are all the more grateful for the helpful and supportive way
Oxford University Press has dealt with our proposal right from the beginning.
Th e critical response from their anonymous readers has been instrumental in
improving the internal coherence of the collection. Lizzie Robottom in par-
ticular has proved a constant source of advice and encouragement during the
fi nal stages of producing the manuscript.
Oxford,
Julia Meszaros
Johannes Zachhuber
Contents

List of Contributors ix
1. Introduction 1
Johannes Zachhuber and Julia Meszaros
2. Modern Discourse on Sacrifi ce and its Th eological Background 12
Johannes Zachhuber
3. Sacrifi ce as Self-destructive ‘Love’: Why Autonomy Should
Still Matter to Feminists 29
Pamela Sue Anderson
4. Sacrifi ce, Atonement, and Renewal: Intersections between
Girard, Kristeva, and Balthasar 48
Paul S. Fiddes
5. Sacrifi ce and the Self 66
Julia Meszaros
6. Sacrifi cial Cults as ‘the Mysterious Centre of Every Religion’:
A Girardian Assessment of Aby Warburg’s Th eory of Religion 83
Wolfgang Palaver
7. From Slaughtered Lambs to Dedicated Lives:
Sacrifi ce as Value-Bestowal 100
Jessica Frazier
8. Sacrifi ce as Refusal 115
Gavin Flood
9. Sacrifi ce in Recent Roman Catholic Th ought: From Paradox
to Polarity, and Back Again? 132
Philip McCosker
10. Using Hubert and Mauss to think about Sacrifi ce 147
Nick Allen
11. Th e Aztec Sacrifi cial Complex 163
Laura Rival
12. Human Sacrifi ce and Two Imaginative Worlds,
Aztec and Christian: Finding God in Evil 180
David Brown
viii Contents
13. Blood Sacrifi ce as a Symbol of the Paradigmatic Other:
Th e Debate about Ebó-Rituals in the Americas 197
Bettina E. Schmidt
14. Apocalypse and Sacrifi ce in Modern Film: American
Exceptionalism and a Scandinavian Alternative 214
Jon Pahl
15. Human Sacrifi ce and the Literary Imagination 231
Derek Hughes
Bibliographical References 249
Index 2 71
List of Contributors

Nick Allen was formerly Reader in Social Anthropology of South Asia at the
University of Oxford.
Pamela Sue Anderson is Reader in Philosophy of Religion at the University
of Oxford, and Fellow in Philosophy at Regent’s Park College.
David Brown is Professor of Th eology, Aesthetics, and Culture in the
Institute for Th eology, Imagination, and the Arts, and Wardlaw Professor at
St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews.
Paul S. Fiddes is Professor of Systematic Th eology at the University of
Oxford, and a Fellow (and former Principal) of Regent’s Park College.
Gavin Flood is Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at the
University of Oxford, and Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu
Studies.
Jessica Frazier is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent, and
a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
Derek Hughes is Professor Emeritus of English and former Director of the
Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Aberdeen.
Philip McCosker is Research Associate to the Norris-Hulse Professor of
Divinity at the University of Cambridge.
Julia Meszaros is Postdoctoral Researcher in Th eological Anthropology at
the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven.
Jon Pahl is Professor in the History of Christianity at Th e Lutheran
Th eological Seminary, Philadelphia.
Wolfgang Palaver is Professor of Systematic Th eology, and Chair of the
Institute of Systematic Th eology at the University of Innsbruck.
Laura Rival is University Lecturer in Anthropology and Development at the
University of Oxford, and Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford.
Bettina E. Schmidt is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religions at the
University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Johannes Zachhuber is Reader in Th eology at the University of Oxford, and
a Fellow and Tutor at Trinity College, Oxford.