Sacrifice: Theory and Praxis II

Harvard HDS

A comparative examination of the paradoxical ritual of sacrifice in a range of religious traditions where it is featured, rejected, or sublimated.We will consider types of sacrifice, blood and bloodless offerings, and recurrent religious concepts: e.g., cosmogony, consecration, thanksgiving, communion, reciprocity, substitution, efficacy, violence, transgression, expiation, catharsis, human and divine hierarchy, gendered and racialized dimensions, and sacerdotal authority. We will also…