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This book is primarily for researchers and students in the archaeology of the Ancient Near East. The volume results from intense interaction between archaeologists at these sites and a group of theorists studying the scholarship of René Girard.
What is sacrifice? How can we identify it in the archaeological record? And what does it tell us about the societies that practice it? Sacred Killing: The Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East investigates these and other questions through the evidence for human and animal sacrifice in the Near East from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic periods. Drawing on sociocultural anthropology and history in addition to archaeology, the book also includes evidence from ancient China and a riveting eyewitness account and analysis of sacrifice in contemporary India, which engage some of the key issues at stake. Sacred Killing vividly presents a variety of methods and theories in the study of one of the most profound and disturbing ritual activities humans have ever practiced.
In Sacred Violence, Jill N. Claster brings new insight and focus to the history of the crusades. The book includes an 8-page color insert of illustrations, 12 maps, over 25 black-and-white illustrations, a chronology of the crusades, and a list of rulers.
This book explores the philosophical and theological significance of evolutionary anthropology and includes diverse approaches to the relationship between evolution, culture, and religion. Particular emphasis is placed on the work of Michael Tomasello, who contributes an opening chapter that tackles the role of religion in his natural history of human thinking and human morality. The first section of the book considers the philosophical foundations of evolutionary anthropology and shows that evolutionary anthropology is open to a multitude of philosophical analyses. The second part offers theological perspectives on the relationship between evolutionary and theological anthropology and between evolution and religion. The volume also reflects more broadly on the complex relationship between religion and science in the contexts of late-modern societies. It makes a significant contribution to the religion and science debate and offers performative evidence that an interdisciplinary discussion between theologians, philosophers, and natural scientists is feasible.
Central to identity, personal responsibility, economic systems, theology, and the political and military imaginaries, the practice of sacrifice has inspired, disturbed, and abused. Mimesis and Sacrifice brings together scholars from the humanities, military, business, and social sciences to examine the role that sacrifice plays in different present-day settings, from economics to gender relations. Inspired by Rene Girard's work, chapters explore (i) the extent to which the social character of human living makes us mimetic, (ii) whether mimesis necessarily leads to competitive aggression, (iii) whether aggression must be defused by aggressive sacrificial rituals-and whether all sacrifice has this aim, and (iv) the role of the “second lesson of the cross” (as Girard called it), the lesson of self-giving for others, in addressing present societal problems. By investigating sacrifice across this span of arenas and questions yet within one volume, Mimesis and Sacrifice presents a new appreciation of its influence and consequences in the world today, contributing not only to mimetic theory but to greater understanding of which societal arrangement enable us to live well together and what hobbles that goal.
Sacrifice is not simply an expression of religious beliefs. Its highly symbolic nature lends itself to various kinds of manipulation by those carrying it out, who may use the ritual in maintaining and negotiating power and identity in carefully staged 'performances'. This Element will examine some of the many different types of sacrifice and ritual killing of human beings through history, from Bronze Age China and the Near East to Mesoamerica to Northern Europe. The focus is on the archaeology of human sacrifice, but where available, textual and iconographic sources provide valuable complements to the interpretation of the material.
One of the critical issues in interreligious relations today is the connection, both actual and perceived, between sacred sources and the justification of violent acts as divinely mandated. Fighting Words makes solid text-based scholarship accessible to the general public, beginning with the premise that a balanced approach to religious pluralism in our world must build on a measured, well-informed response to the increasingly publicized and sensationalized association of terrorism and large-scale violence with religion. In his introduction, Renard provides background on the major scriptures of seven religious traditions—Jewish, Christian (including both the Old and New Testaments), Islamic, Baha’i, Zoroastrian, Hindu, and Sikh. Eight chapters then explore the interpretation of select facets of these scriptures, focusing on those texts so often claimed, both historically and more recently, as inspiration and justification for every kind of violence, from individual assassination to mass murder. With its nuanced consideration of a complex topic, this book is not merely about the religious sanctioning of violence but also about diverse ways of reading sacred textual sources.
This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the role of spirituality and religious ritual in the emergence of complex societies. Involving an eminent group of natural scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and theologians, this volume examines Çatalhöyük as a case study. A nine-thousand-year old town in central Turkey, Çatalhöyük was first excavated in the 1960s and has since become integral to understanding the symbolic and ritual worlds of the early farmers and village-dwellers in the Middle East. It is thus an ideal location for exploring theories about the role of religion in early settled life. This book provides a unique overview of current debates concerning religion and its historical variations. Through exploration of themes including the integration of the spiritual and the material, the role of belief in religion, the cognitive bases for religion, and religion's social roles, this book situates the results from Çatalhöyük within a broader understanding of the Neolithic in the Middle East.
The Book of Psalms includes some of the most impassioned language about God in the Old Testament. At the same time, the psalms as a collection constitute one of the most impassioned debates about the nature and activity of God on behalf of individuals, Israel, and the created order. In this learned yet accessible volume, Robert Foster offers the first major introduction to this debate about the person and work of God as it unfolds in the Book of Psalms. If God is the Just King, why does this King delay vindicating the oppressed and saving them from wicked oppressors? What happens when God turns in divine judgment against the people of Israel? Does God keep the promises made to the descendants of David and the covenant made with the people of Israel? Do the psalmists find God faithful and so worthy of the final commands in the Psalter to “Praise the Lord”? These powerful questions drive the debate within the Book of Psalms. By attending to the psalmists’ rhetoric, Foster shows how the individual psalmists appeal to God in prayer and proclamation and how these contrasting voices give life to the Psalter and to its presentation of the living God.