Sacrifice in Pagan and Christian Antiquity

Robert J. Daly

t&tclark

london • new york • oxford • new delhi • sydney

T&T CLARK

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain 2019

Copyright © Robert J. Daly, 2019

Robert J. Daly has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.

Cover design: Tjaša Krivec

Cover images: (above) The Holy Trinity, engraving / after Pier Francesco Mola / The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951 / THE MET; (below) Four classical figures (pagan sacrifice), etching / Wenceslaus Hollar / Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917 / THE MET

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ISBN: HB: 978-0-5676-8705-0

ePDF: 978-0-5676-8704-3

ePUB: 978-0-5676-8702-9

Contents

Foreword

Part One Introduction, Methodological and Hermeneutical Issues

Preliminary notes

1 The history of religions

2 Postmodern approaches

3 The elites in Antiquity and Christianity

4 What is sacrifice?

5 The sacrificial world confronting ancient Christianity

6 Sacrifice in human history

7 The unity of the ancient world of sacrifice

8 The “end” of paganism?

Part Two The Greco-Roman Trajectory

1 From Homer and Hesiod up to Heraclitus and Plato

2 Anaximenes

3 Theophrastus

4 Philo of Alexandria

5 Apollonius of Tyana

6 Heliodorus of Emesa

7 Plutarch

8 Lucian

9 Porphyry

10 Iamblichus

11 Sallust

12 Symmachus

13 Macrobius and the “end” of paganism

Part Three The Jewish-Christian Trajectory

Preliminary note: The many meanings of sacrifice

1 General secular understanding of sacrifice

2 General religious understanding of sacrifice

3 Sacrifice in the Hebrew Scriptures

4 General Christian understanding of sacrifice

5 Specifically Catholic understanding of sacrifice

6 Authentic Christian, that is trinitarian understanding of sacrifice

Transitional note

1 The Hebrew Scriptures

a. The burnt offering

b. Divine acceptance of sacrifice

Excursus 1: “Leave your gift there before the altar” (Mt. 5:24)

c. Sin offering and atonement

d. The ...