What is Sacrifice?

Harvard FAS

What is sacrifice and does it still matter? The contemporary world seems to demand that human beings become increasingly self-focused as we compete for scarcer resources, security, or social status. Can the idea of surrendering something precious for the sake of something greater still hold power? We will study the history of sacrifice, a ritual that has played a central role in the world’s religions and is still practiced in some today. In many cultures, animals, humans, or plants were…