Spring 2006
REL 622 Sacrifice
Thursdays 12:30-3:15 p.m. in HL 504
Instructor: JIM WATTS (Ph.D.)
Office: 505 HL 
Phone: 443-5713 
E-mail: jwwatts
Relief from Temple of Demeter, Pergamum (photo JWWatts, 2001)
The term "sacrifice" appears widely in both contemporary political and religious cultures and in academic discussions of religion, anthropology, and philosophy. This research seminar will trace the idea of sacrifice along two vectors: the cultural vector which we will pursue backwards from modern to ancient Near Eastern cultures, and the theoretical vector which we will analyze forwards from 19th-century to contemporary theorists of sacrifice. 

Course Requirements:
Students are expected to be prepared to discuss in class all the required readings (listed below under Sources, Culture, and Theory).  In addition, each student will (1) prepare and present a report on one additional book or set of essays (listed after Report), and (2) write a substantive and original research paper on a subject related to the course topic, presenting the class with a summary during the last class meeting. The finished research papers are due on or before May 11th. Students' work will be evaluated on the basis of class participation (20%), the oral and written book report (20%), the research presentation (10%) and the final research paper (50%). Undergraduate students may choose, instead of the research paper, to write three additional 5-8 page reports (for a total of four) on an additional book or set of essays (listed below after Report and due on the day listed). Late papers and reports will not be eligible for "A" grades.

Texts:
Carter, Jeffrey. Understanding Religious Sacrifice: a Reader. London: Continuum, 2003 (= URS below)
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Blood Rites, New York: Metropolitan, 1997
Green, Miranda. Dying for the Gods, Charleston: Tempus, 2001
    Most of the source material is available on-line; click on the underlined links below in the on-line syllabus (at http://web.syr.edu/~jwwatts/REL600s.html). The articles preceded by an minus (-) in the list below, are available in the course reader which is in the Religion Department lounge and is also available through Bird Library's online reserve. Most of the books are on 2-day reserve or in reference at Bird Library (exceptions marked by * below). 
    For further resources relevant to the topic of this course, consult the Bibliography below. 


Topics and Readings (for full citations, see bibliography below):
Day Topic Texts:
Jan 19 Introductions
Jan 26 Contemporary Sacrifice

Sources: -"Crucible of the gods"
Kalasha goat sacrifice
Supreme Court Ruling on Santeria Animal Sacrifices
Sacrifice in 21st Century News Stories
Culture: -Draper & Thomas, "Sacrifice" and "Sacrifice in Bible Times" 
-Moosa, "Sacrifice" 
-Yerkes, Sacrifice, chap. 1 
-Jay, Throughout Your Generations Forever, Introduction & chap. 8
Theory: Carter, URS, 1-11
Tylor & Spencer in URS, chaps. 1-2 

Feb 2 Sacrifice in Modern Culture Sources: Sacrifice in 21st Century Political Rhetoric
A "Martyr's" Biography
Benito Mussolini, "What is Fascism?"
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Call for Sacrifice"
Culture: -Bellah, "Civil Religion in America"
-Bergen, "Blood Sacrifice in the United States," Reading Ritual, chap. 5
-Garber & Zuckerman, "Why do we call the Holocaust 'The Holocaust'?"
-Mizruchi, "Introduction," Science of Sacrifice
Theory: Robertson Smith & Frazer in URS, chaps. 3-4
Reports: Frazer, The Golden Bough
or Smith, The Religion of the Semites
or Mizruchi, Science of Sacrifice
Feb 9 Rennaissance and Early Modernity:

Sources: John Knox, “A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry”, esp. 2nd syllogism. 
Council of Trent, "Doctrine on the Sacrifice of the Mass", "Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass"
Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 1, scene 1. 
"A Blood Libel Cult: Anderl von Rinn"
Culture: -Shuger, Renaissance Bible, chap. 2.
-Georgourdi, "Sanctified Slaughter in Modern Greece"
- Strenski, Contesting Sacrifice, chaps. 1 & 6
Theory: Hubert & Mauss, and Durkheim in URS, chaps. 5 & 7. 
Reports: Shuger, Renaissance Bible
or Hubert & Mauss, Sacrifice
or Strenski, Contesting Sacrifice

Feb 16 Europeans in Meso-America Sources: De Sahagun, General History 1-4, 11-12, 42-56, 78-90
Del Castillo, Discovery and Conquest 187-96, 433-39
Culture: Arnold, Eating Landscape, chap. 3
Carrasco, City of Sacrifice, chap. 5
Theory: Westermarck & Freud  in URS, chaps. 6 & 8
Reports: Freud, Totem and Taboo
Feb 23 Middle Ages: Islam, Judaism, Christianity Sources: Gregory I, Letter to Abbot Mellitus
Quran 22:28,30,34-37 (3 parallel translations) & Hadith on Sacrifice
Culture: -Chazan, European Jewry, chap. 4. 
Theory: Bataille & Jensen in URS, chaps. 10 & 11
Reports: *Combs-Shilling, Sacred Performances
or Bataille, Theory of Religion
Mar 2 Late Antiquity: Jews, Christians, & Pagans

Sources: Diocletian: Edicts Against The Christians
"Certificate of Having Sacrificed to the Gods"
Prohibition on Selling Christians to Pagans for Sacrificial Rites
Julian and the Jews 361-363 CE
Culture: -Heyman, "Power of Sacrifice," chap. 4 and conclusion
O'Donnell, "The Demise of Paganism"
Theory: Evans-Pritchard, de Heusch and Lincoln in URS, chaps. 12, 17, 21

Mar 9 Early Christianity Sources: New Testament: Mark 8:34-37; 9:2-8; 14:1-15:47; John 1:29-34; 3:16-21; 6:1-71; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 10:14-33; 11:23-32; Hebrews 5:1-10; 7:11-28; 9:1-10:31; Revelation 4:1-6:17 
Gospel of the Ebionites, esp. last 2 paragraphs. 
Didache, chaps. 13-14. 
Culture: Chilton, "The Sacrifice of Jesus"
-Heyman, "Power of Sacrifice," chap. 3 
Daly, “The Power of Sacrifice" in URS, chap. 20
Theory:
Girard in URS, chap. 14
Reports: Girard, The Girard Reader
Mar 16 Spring Break No Class
Mar 23 Hellenism and Second Temple Judaism

Sources: Livy 8.9-10, 10.27-29 and 10.38
Accounts of Personal Religion
Apocrypha/Deuteroncanon: 1 Maccabees 1-2, 2 Maccabees 7 
-Miqzat Ma`ase ha-Torah, in Texts and Traditions
-"Elephantine Temple Papyrus," in Texts and Traditions
Culture: -North, "Sacrifice and Ritual: Rome"
-Heyman, "Power of Sacrifice," 1-113
-Lincoln, “The Druids and Human Sacrifice” 
-Twyman, “The Celts and Roman Human Sacrifice
Theory: Burkert & J.Z. Smith in URS, chaps. 13-19
Reports: Burkert, Creation of the Sacred ix-55, 102-155.

Mar 30 Sacrifice in the Iron Age: Greece 

Sources: Homer, Odyssey, XI, 18-50
Hesiod, Theogony II, 507-560 
Accounts of Hellenic Religious Beliefs
Culture:  -Jameson, "Sacrifice and Ritual: Greece"
-Detienne, "The Violence of Wellborn Ladies"
-Kitts, "Sacrificial Violence in the Iliad"
Theory: Bloch in URS, chaps. 24 
Ehrenreich, Blood Rites (all)
-Detienne, "Culinary Practices," 13-20.
Reports:
*Detienne & Vernant, Cuisine of Sacrifice
Due: Paper topics

Apr 6 Sacrifice in the Iron Age: 
Israel & Phoenicia
Sources: Hebrew Bible: Exodus 13:11-16; Leviticus 1-11, 16-17; 1 Samuel 15; Isaiah 1:1-17; Jeremiah 7:1-34; Ezekiel 20:21-31; Micah 6:6-8; Genesis 4:1-26; 9; 22; Exodus 22:20, 29-30; Judges 11; 2 Kings 3:21-27
-Attridge & Oden, Philo of Byblos, 47-57, 62-63
"The Carthaginian Law of Sacrifices"
Culture: -Anderson, “Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings (OT).” ABD 5:870-86
Levenson in URS, chap. 22
Theory:
Jay & Beers in URS, chaps. 23, 25
Reports: Jay, Throughout Your Generations Forever
Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son
Apr 13 Sacrifice in the Bronze Age?

Sources: -"The 'Aqhatu Legend," COS 1.103
-Gilgamesh 11.145-169
-Egyptian prayers for offerings
Culture: -Berquist, “Bronze Age Sacrificial Koine
-Lambert,  “Donations of Food and Drink
Theory: Van der Leew & Van Baal in URS, chaps 9 & 15.
-Derrida, “Whom to Give to (Knowing Not to Know)"
Due: Paper thesis, bibliography and outline

Apr 20 The Archeology of
Human Sacrifice

Sources: - With Escorts to the Afterlife, Pharaohs Proved Their Power
- Human Sacrifices in Ancient Egypt & link to "cannibal hymn"
Culture: Green, Dying for the Gods
Theory: -Strenski, “...Sacrifice in the 90s.” 
-Nancy, "The Unsacrificeable
-Robbins, “Sacrifice.”
-Watts, "Rhetoric of Sacrifice

Apr 27 
1-5 pm
  Oral Paper presentations
May 11   Research Papers Due

Course Bibliography:
(For this bibliography arranged by period, culture or contents, see the Topical Bibliography on Sacrifice)

Anthologies:

  • Altar and Sacrifice: The Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium on the Liturgy (1St-3Rd October 1997). Saint Austin Press, 1999.
  • The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks. Ed. M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant. Tr. P. Wissig. Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1989 (French 1979).
  • Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Ed. J. Quaegebeur. Leuven: Peeters, 1993.
  • Sacrifice in Religious Experience. Ed. Albert I. Baumgarten, Leiden: Brill, 2002.
  • Understanding Religious Sacrifice: a Reader. Ed. Jeffrey Carter. London: Continuum, 2003.

Monographs & articles:

  • Abusch, Tzvi. “Sacrifice in Mesopotamia.” In Sacrifice in Religious Experience, 39-48.
  • Anderson, Gary A. “Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings (OT).” In Anchor Bible Dictionary, 5:870-86.
  • Anderson, Gary A. Sacrifices and Offerings in Ancient Israel: Studies in Their Social and Political Importance. HSM. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987.
  • Arnold, Philip P. Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1999.
  • Arnould, Elisabeth. “The Impossible Sacrifice of Poetry: Bataille and the Nancian Critique of Sacrifice.” Diacritics 26.2 (1996) 86-96.
  • Attridge, Harold W. and Robert A. Oden, Jr. Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History. CBQMS 9. Washington: Catholic Biblical Association, 1981. 
  • Bataille, Georges. Theory of Religion. Tr. R. Hurley. New York: Zone, 1992 (1948).
  • Beckwith, Roger T. and Martin J. Selman (eds).  Sacrifice in the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.
  • Belayche, Nicole. “Sacrifice and Theory of Sacrifice During the ‘Pagan Reaction’: Julian the Emperor.” In Sacrifice in Religious Experience, 101-126.
  • Bellah, Robert N. "Civil Religion in America." Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Pp. 168-89.
  • Bergen, Wesley J. Reading Ritual: Leviticus in Postmodern Culture. JSOTSup 417. London: T&T Clark, 2005.
  • Bergmann, Martin S.  In the Shadow of Moloch : The Sacrifice of Children and Its Impact on Western Religions.  New York: Columbia U.P., 1992.
  • Berquist, Birgitta. “Bronze Age Sacrificial Koine in the Eastern Mediterranean? A Study of Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East,” in Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, 11-43
  • Boehm, Omri. “Child Sacrifice, Ethical Responsibility and the Existence of the People of Israel.” Vetus Testamentum 54 (2004) 145-56.
  • Boyarin, Daniel. Dying for God. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
  • Brandt, Sigrid. Opfer als Gedächtnis: Auf dem Weg zu einer befreienden theologischen Rede von Opfer. Münster: LIT, 2001.
  • Bremer, Jan. “Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983) 299-320.
  • Bremer, Tom. “Sacrificial Slaughter and Dressing Up: Gender Articulations in Muslim Rituals.” Religious Studies Review 22, no. 3 (1996): 209-13.
  • Brichto, H.  “On Slaughter and Sacrifice, Blood and Atonement.” Hebrew Union College Annual 58 (1976) 1-17.
  • Brown, Shelby. Late Carthaginian child sacrifice and sacrificial monuments in their Mediterranean context. ASOR monograph series 3. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991.
  • Burkert, Walter, Rene Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith, Violent Origins: Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation. Ed. Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly. Palo Alto: Stanford, 1987.
  • Burkert, Walter. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. 34-55, 129-155.
  • Burkert, Walter.  Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. Berkeley: U. of California, 1983.
  • Carrasco, David L. City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization. Beacon, 1999.
  • Cartry, M. and L. De Heusch (eds.). Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire, Cahier 2: Le Sacrifice I (1976); Cahier 3: Le Sacrifice 2 (1978); Cahier 4: Le Sacrifice 3 (1979); Cahier 5: Le Sacrifice 4 (1981); Cahier 6: Le Sacrifice 5 (1983). Le'Ecole Pratique des hautes Etudes Section des Sciences Religiouses. Paris.
  • Chazan, Robert. European Jewry and the First Crusade. Berkeley: U. of California, 1987.
  • Chilton, Bruce. The Temple of Jesus: His Sacrificial Program Within a Cultural History of Sacrifice. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992.
  • Combs-Shilling, M.  Sacred Performances: Islam, Sexuality and Sacrifice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
  • Dahm, Ulrike. Opferkult und Priestertum in Alt-Israel: Ein kultur- und religionswissenschaftlicher Beitrag. BZAW 327. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2003.
  • Daly, Robert.  “Is Christianity Sacrificial or Antisacrificial?” Religion 27 (1997) 231-43.
  • Daly, Robert. “Sacrifice,” in The New Dictionary of Theology
  • Daly, Robert. “The Power of Sacrifice in Ancient Judaism and Christianity,” Journal of Ritual Studies 4/2 (1990): 181-98.
  • Delaney, Carol. Abraham on Trial: the Social Legacy of Biblical Myth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
  • Derrida, Jacques, “Whom to Give to (Knowing Not to Know),” in The Gift of Death. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1996.
  • Detienne, Marcel. "Culinary Practices and the Spirit of Sacrifice." In Cuisine of Sacrifice, 1-20.
  • Detienne, Marcel. "The Violence of Wellborn Ladies: Women in the Thesmophoria." In Cuisine of Sacrifice, 129-147.
  • Diaz del Castillo, Bernal. The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. Tr. A. P. Maudslay. New York: Farrer, Straus & Cudahy.
  • Draper, Richard D. "Sacrifice in Biblical Times." Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Ed. D. H. Ludlow. New York: Macmillan, 1992. 3:1248-49.
  • Drexler, J. Die Illusion des Opfers. Ein wissenschaftlicher Überblick über die wichtigsten Opftertheorien ausgehen vom deleuzianischen Polyperspektivismusmodell. Münchener Ethnologische Abhandlungen 12. Munich, 1993.
  • Durand, J.-L. Sacrifice et Labeur en Grèce Ancienne: Essai d’Anthropologie Religieuse. Editions de la Decouverte, 1986.
  • Eberhart, Christian. Studien zur Bedeutung der Opfer im Alten Testament: Die Signifikanz von Blut- und Verbrennungsriten im kultischen Raum. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukircherner, 2002.
  • Eckstein, A. M.  "Human sacrifice and fear of military disaster in Republican Rome." American Journal of Ancient History 7 (1982) 69-95.
  • Ehrenreich, Barbara. Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. New York: Metropolitan, 1997.
  • Eilberg-Schwartz, Howard. The Savage in Judaism: An Anthropology of Israelite Religion and Ancient Judaism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.
  • Elliger, Karl. “Zur Analyse des Sündopfergesetzes.” In Verbannung und Heimkehr: Beiträge zur Geschichte und Theologie Israels im 6. und 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Edited by A. Kuschke. Tübingen: Mohr (Siebeck), 1961. 39-50.
  • Evans-Ptichard, Edward E. “The Meaning of Sacrifice Among the Nuer.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 84 (1954), 21-33; reprinted in Understanding Religious Sacrifice, 192-209.
  • Frantzen, Allen J. Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
  • Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Abridged edition. New York: Macmillan, 1922, 1960.
  • Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo: Resemblences between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics. Tr. A. A. Brill. New York: Vintage, 1918.
  • Garber, Zev & Bruce Zuckerman. "Why do we call the Holocaust 'The Holocaust'?" In Garber, Shoah: The Paradigmatic Genocide. Lanham: UPA, 1994. 51-66.
  • Georgourdi, Stella. "Sanctified Slaughter in Modern Greece: the 'Kourbania' of the Saints." In Cuisine of Sacrifice, 183-203.
  • Gilders, William K. Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible: Meaning and Power. Johns Hopkins UP, 2004.
  • Girard, René. Violence and the Sacred. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1977 (French 1972).
  • Girard, René. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Stanford: Stanford U.P., 1987 (French 1978).
  • Girard, René. The Scapegoat. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1986 (French 1982).
  • Girard, René. The Girard reader.  New York : Crossroad, 1996.
  • Grant, Robert M.  Early Christians & Animals. New York: Routledge, 1999.
  • Gray, George Buchanan. Sacrifice in the Old Testament: Its Theory and Practice. First printed, 1925. Reprint with introduction by Baruch A. Levine. New York: Ktav, 1971.
  • Green, A.R.W. The Roles of Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975.
  • Green, Miranda. Dying for the Gods: Human Sacrifice in Iron Age and Roman Europe. Arcadia, 2001.
  • Hallo, W. W.  “The Origins of the Sacrificial Cult: New Evidence from Mesopotamia and Israel.”  In P.D. Miller, Jr., Ancient Israelite Religion. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987. 3-14.
  • Hammoudi, Abdellah (Tr. Paula Wissing). The Victim and Its Masks : An Essay on Sacrifice and Masquerade in the Maghreb. Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1993.
  • Haran, Menahem. Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel: An Inquiry Into the Character of Cult Phenomena and the Historical Setting of the Priestly School. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
  • Heesterman, J. C. The Broken World of Sacrifice: An Essay in Ancient Indian Ritual. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
  • Heider, George C. The Cult of Molek: A Reassessment. JSOTSup. Sheffield: JSOT, 1985.
  • Heinsohn, Gunnar. “The Rise of Blood Sacrifice and Priest-Kingship in Mesopotamia: A “Cosmic Decree”?.” Religion 22 (1992): 109 - 134.
  • Henninger, Joseph. “Sacrifice.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, 544-57.
  • Herz, Peter. “Sacrifice and Sacrificial Ceremonies in the Roman Imperial Army.” In Sacrifice in Religious Experience, 81-100.
  • Heusch, Luc de. Sacrifice in Africa: A Structuralist Approach. Tr. Linda O’Brian and Alice Morton. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
  • Heyman, George P. “The Power of Sacrifice: Roman and Christian Discourses in Conflict.” Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 2004.
  • Hillman, James. “Once More into the Fray: A Response to Wolfgang Giegerich’s ‘Killings’.” Spring 56 (1994), 1-18.
  • Hubert, Henri and Marcel Mauss. Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1964 (French original, 1898).
  • James, E. O. Origins of Sacrifice: A Study in Comparative Religion. London: Murray, 1933.
  • Jameson, Michael H. "Sacrifice and Ritual: Greece." Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome. Ed. M. Grant & R. Kitzinger. New York: Scribner's, 1988. 2:959-79.
  • Jamison, Stephanie W. Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • Jankowsi, Bernd and Neumann-Gorsolke, Ute. “Motive und Materialien.” In Gefährten und Feinde des Menschen. Das Tier in der Lebenswelt des alten Israel. Ed. Bernd Janowski, et al. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1993.
  • Janzen, David. The Social Meanings of Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of Four Writings. BZAW 344. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2004.
  • Jay, Nancy. “Sacrifice, Descent and the Patriarchs.” Vetus Testamentum 38 (1988): 52-70.
  • Jay, Nancy. Throughout Your Generations Forever: Sacrifice, Religion, and Paternity.  Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1992.
  • Jong, Albert de. “Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Zoroastrianism: A Ritual and Its Interpretations.” In Sacrifice in Religious Experience, 127-148.
  • Kessler, Edward. Bound By the Bible: Jews, Christians and the Sacrifice of Isaac. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Kitts, Margo. “Sacrificial Violence in the Iliad.” Journal of Ritual Studies 16/1 (2002) 19-39.
  • Klawans, Jonathan. “Pure Violence: Sacrifice and Defilement in Ancient Israel.” Harvard Theological Review 94/2 (2001), 133-55.
  • Klawans, Jonathan. Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Koester, Helmut. “Jesus the Victim.” Journal of Biblical Literature 111 (1992): 3-15.
  • Kunin, Seth Daniel. “The Death of Isaac: Structuralist Analysis of Genesis 22.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 64 (1994): 57-81.
  • Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Anchor, 2003.
  • Lambert, Wilfred G.  “Donations of Food and Drink to the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia.” In Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, 191-201.
  • Levenson, Jon. The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity. New Haven: Yale, 1993.
  • Lincoln, Bruce. “Sacrificial Ideology and Indo-European Society.” Death, War and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago: U Chicago, 1991. 167-75.
  • Lincoln, Bruce. “The Druids and Human Sacrifice.” Death, War and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago: U Chicago, 1991. 176-87.
  • Lyonnet, Stanislas & Leopold Sabourin. Sin, Redemption, and Sacrifice: A Biblical and Patristic Study. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1998.
  • Maccoby, Hyam. The Sacred Executioner: Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
  • Malina, Bruce J. “Mediterranean Sacrifice: Dimensions of Domestic and Political Religion.” Biblical theology bulletin 26/1 (1996): 26 - 44.
  • Marvin, Carolyn & David Ingle. Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.
  • Marx, Alfred. “Familiarité et transcendance. La fonction du sacrifice d’aprés l’Ancien Testament.” In Studien zu Opfer und Kult im Alten Testament, ed. Schenker, Adrian, 1 - 14. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 3. TUbingen: Mohr, 1992.
  • Marx, Alfred.  Les Offrandes Végétales dans l’Ancien Testament.  VTSup 57.  Leiden: Brill, 1994.
  • Marx, Alfred.  “La place du sacrifice dans l’ancien Israél.”  In J. A. Emerton (ed.), Congress Volume: Cambridge 1995.  VTSup 66.  Leiden: Brill, 1997.  203-217.
  • Marx, Alfred. “The Theology of Sacrifice According to Leviticus 1-7.” In R. Rendtorff and R. A. Kugler (eds.), The Book of Leviticus: Composition and Reception. VTSup 93. Leiden: Brill, 2003. 103-120.
  • McCarthy, Dennis J. “The Symbolism of Blood and Sacrifice,” Journal of Biblical Literature 88 (1969), 166-76.
  • McCarthy, Dennis J. “Further Notes on the Symbolism of Blood and Sacrifice,” Journal of Biblical Literature 92 (1973), 205-10.
  • McClymond, Kathryn. “The Nature and Elements of Sacrificial Ritual.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 16/4 (2004), pp. 337-366.
  • McEntire, Mark Harold.  The Function of Sacrifice in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.  Mellon, 1993.
  • McLean, Bradley H. “The Absence of an Atoning Sacrifice in Paul’s Soteriology.” New Testament studies 38 (1992): 531 - 553.
  • Meyers, Carol. “Hannah and her Sacrifice. Reclaiming Female Agency.” In A Feminist Companion to Samuel and Kings, ed. Athalya Brenner. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994. 93-104.
  • Milgrom, Jacob. Leviticus 1-16, Leviticus 17-22, Leviticus 23-27. Anchor Bible 3. 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1991, 2000, 2001.
  • Mizruchi, Susan L. The Science of Sacrifice: American Literature and Modern Social Theory.  Princeton University Press, 1998.
  • Mizruchi, Susan L. “The Place of Ritual in Our Time.” American Literary History 12/3 (2000) 467-492.
  • Moosa, Ebrahim. "Sacrifice." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. J. L. Esposito. Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1995. 3:447-48.
  • Nancy, Jean-Luc. "The Unsacrificeable," trans. Richard Livingston, Yale French Studies 79 (1991): 20-38.
  • Nikoloudis, Stephie. “Animal Sacrifice in the Mycenaean World.” Journal of Prehistoric Religion 15 (2001).
  • Noort, Ed and Eibert Tigchelaar (eds.). The Sacrifice of Isaac: The Aqedah (Genesis 22) and its Interpretations. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
  • North, John A. "Sacrifice and Ritual: Rome." Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome. Ed. M. Grant & R. Kitzinger. New York: Scribner's, 1988. 981-86.
  • O'Donnell, James J. "The Demise of Paganism." Traditio 35 (1979), 45-88.
  • Osborne, Robin. "Women and sacrifice in ancient Greece." The Classical Quarterly 43 no. 2 (1993): 392-405.
  • Patton, Laurie L. Bringing the Gods to Mind: Mantra and Ritual in Early Indian Sacrifice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
  • Pleins, David J. “Son-Slayers and Their Sons.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 54 (1992): 29-38.
  • Quaegebeur, Jan. “L’autel-à-feu et l’abattoir en Égypte tardive.” In Ritual and Sacrifice, 329-353.
  • Randsborg, Klavs.  Hjortspring : Warfare and Sacrifice in Early Europe. Aarhus University Press, 1996
  • Rasmussen, Susan J. “Animal Sacrifice and the Problem of Translation: The Construction of Meaning in Tuareg Sacrifice.” Journal of Ritual Studies 16/2 (2002) 141-164.
  • Rendtorff, Rolf. Studien zur Geschichte des Opfers im Alten Israel. WMANT 24. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1967.
  • Rendtorff, Rolf. Leviticus. BKAT. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1990.
  • Robbins, Jill.  “Sacrifice.”  In Mark C. Taylor (ed.), Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1998. 285-97.
  • Rosivach, Vincent J. The System of Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens. American Classical Studies, 34. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994.
  • Rosset, Vincent. “Bibliographie 1969-1991 zum Opfer in der Bibel.” In Studien zu Opfer und Kult im Alten Testament, ed. Schenker, Adrian, 107 - 151. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 3. TUbingen: Mohr, 1992.
  • Rost, Leonhard. “Erwägungen zum israelitischen Brandopfer.” In Von Ugarit nach Qumran. Ed. J. Hempel and L. Rost. BZAW. Berlin: Töpelmann, 1958. 177-83.
  • Rost, L.  Studien zum Opfer im Alten Israel.  BWANT 6/13.  Stuttgart, 1981.
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