Fall 2001 REL 600 Sacrifice Thursdays 1:00-3:30 p.m. in HL 504 Instructor: JIM WATTS (Ph.D.) Office: 505 HL  Phone: 443-5713  E-mail: jwwatts@syr.edu

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 Ph.D. 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 December 17th.) Non-Ph.D. students may choose, instead of the research paper, to write 2 additional 5-8 page reports (for a total of 3) 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: Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, 1918.  Walter Burkert, Rene Girard, and Jonathan Z. Smith, Violent Origins, 1987.  Nancy Jay, Throughout Your Generations Forever, 1992.  Jon Levenson, Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, 1993.      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 at the Marshall Square Copy Center. 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:
Aug 30	Introductions
Sep 6	Sacrifice in Modern Culture	Sources: Benito Mussolini, "What is Fascism?" Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Call for Sacrifice" Supreme Court Ruling on Santeria Animal Sacrifices Culture: -Bellah, "Civil Religion in America" -Draper & Thomas, "Sacrifice" and "Sacrifice in Bible Times"  -Garber & Zuckerman, "Why do we call the Holocaust 'The Holocaust'?" -Moosa, "Sacrifice"  -Yerkes, Sacrifice, chap. 1  Jay, Throughout Your Generations Forever, Introduction & chap. 8.  Theory: -Smith, The Religion of the Semites, lectures 6, 8, 10.  Reports: Frazer, The Golden Bough or Smith, The Religion of the Semites
Sep 13	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" Theory: -Hubert & Mauss, Sacrifice, pp. 1-18, 50-60, 95-105.  Reports: Shuger, Renaissance Bible or Hubert & Mauss, Sacrifice
Sep 20	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: Freud, Totem and Taboo, chap. 4.  Reports: Freud, Totem and Taboo
Sep 27	Yom Kippur	No Class
Oct 4	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, Theory of Religion, chap. 3.  Reports: *Combs-Shilling, Sacred Performances or Bataille, Theory of Religion
Oct 11	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: -Daly, “The Power of Sacrifice"  O'Donnell, "The Demise of Paganism" Theory: -Detienne, "Culinary Practices and the Spirit of Sacrifice," 13-20.  Reports: *Detienne & Vernant, Cuisine of Sacrifice
Oct 18	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" -Young, Use of Sacrificial Ideas, chap. 4.  Theory: Girard, "Generative Scapegoating," Violent Origins 73-145  Reports: Girard, The Girard Reader
Oct 25	Hellenism and Second Temple Judaism	Sources: Livy 8.9-10, 10.27-29 and 10.38.  Accounts of Personal Religion -Burkert, Homo Necans 1-12  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" -Lincoln, “The Druids and Human Sacrifice”  Twyman, “The Celts and Roman Human Sacrifice” Theory: Burkert, "The Problem of Ritual Killing" in Violent Origins 149-88  -Lincoln, “Sacrificial Ideology and Indo-European Society.”  Reports: Burkert, Homo Necans 1-82; and Burkert, Creation of the Sacred ix-55, 102-155.
Nov 1	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, "Culinary Practices and the Spirit of Sacrifice," 1-13. -Detienne, "The Violence of Wellborn Ladies" Theory: J Z Smith, "Domestication of Sacrifice" in Violent Origins 191-235  -Ehrenreich, Blood Rites, 58-76.  Reports: Ehrenreich, Blood Rites
Nov 8	Sacrifice in the Iron Age: Israel	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  Culture: -Anderson, “Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings (OT).” ABD 5:870-86  Theory: Jay, Throughout Your Generations Forever, chaps. 1-4, 7, 9-10  Reports: Maccoby, The Sacred Executioner
Nov 15	Sacrifice in the Iron Age:  Israel & Phoenicia	Sources: Hebrew Bible: 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 & Theory: Levenson, Death and Resurrection Reports: Eilberg-Schwartz, The Savage in Judaism, esp. chap. 5
Nov 22	Thanksgiving  AAR/SBL in Denver	No Class If you are in Denver, check out:  A56 Comparative St. in Religion: "Locating Sacrifice" Saturday 4:00-6:30 p.m. S19-40 "Scholarship of Jacob Milgrom" Monday, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m. S19-22 Joe Barnhart, "Toward a Framework for Viewing Sacrifices in Hebrew Scripture" Monday, 10:00 am S19-34 "Ritual Studies and the Hebrew Bible," Monday, 1:00 - 3:30 pm
Nov 29	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: -Strenski, “...Sacrifice in the 90s.”  -Nancy, "The Unsacrificeable"  -Mizruchi, "Introduction," Science of Sacrifice -Robbins, “Sacrifice.”  Reports: Mizruchi, Science of Sacrifice
Dec 6  1-5 pm		Paper presentations
Dec 17		Research Papers Due

Course Bibliography: 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 Bremer, Tom. “Sacrificial Slaughter and Dressing Up: Gender Articulations in Muslim Rituals.” RSR 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. Palo Alto: Stanford, 1987. Burkert, Walter. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. 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. 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 UP, 1990. 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. 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. 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 U.P., 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Hubert, Henri and Marcel Mauss. Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1964 (French original, 1898). 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. 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. Koester, Helmut. “Jesus the Victim.” JBL 111 (1992): 3-15. 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. 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 Brenner, Athalya (ed): A Feminist Companion to Samuel and Kings, ed. Brenner, Athalya, 93 - 104. The Feminist Companion to the Bible 5. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994. Milgrom, Jacob. Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1991. Mizruchi, Susan L. The Science of Sacrifice: American Literature and Modern Social Theory.  Princeton U.P., 1998. 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. 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. Quaegebeur, J. (ed.)  Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. Leuven: Peeters, 1993. Pleins, David J. “Son-Slayers and Their Sons.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 54 (1992): 29 - 38. Randsborg, Klavs.  Hjortspring : Warfare and Sacrifice in Early Europe. Aarhus University Press, 1996 Rosivach, Vincent J. The System of Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens  (American Classical Studies, No 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, L.  Studien zum Opfer im Alten Israel.  BWANT 6/13.  Stuttgart, 1981. Robbins, Jill.  “Sacrifice.”  In Mark C. Taylor (ed.), Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Chicago: U. of Chicago, 1998. 285-97. Sahagun, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. The School of American Research, 1981. Shuger, Debora Kuller. The Renaissance Bible: Scholarship, Sacrifice, and Subjectivity. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1994. Smith, Brian K.  “Capital Punishment and Human Sacrifice.”  JAAR 68/1 (2000) 3-25. Smith, W. Robertson. The Religion of the Semites. 2nd ed. London: Black, 1907. Sperling, David.  “Blood.”  Anchor Bible Dictionary 1:761-63. Stowers, Stanley K.  “On the comparison of blood in Greek and Israelite ritual.”  In J. Magnes & S. Gitin, eds.  Hesed ve-Emet:  Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs.  BMS.  Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998. Straten, F.T. Van.  Hiera Kala : Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, Vol 127). Leiden: Brill, 1995. Strenski, Ivan. “Between Theory and Specialty: Sacrifice in the 90s.” Religious Studies Review 22, no. 1 (1996):10-20. Thomas, Gloria Jean. "Sacrifice." Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Ed. D. H. Ludlow. New York: Macmillan, 1992. 3:1248. Twyman, Briggs L.  “The Celts and Roman Human Sacrifice.”  The Ancient History Bulletin 11.1 (1997) 1-11 (at http://ivory.trentu.ca/www/cl/ahb/ahb11/ahb-11-1a.html) Versnel, H. S. "Self-sacrifice, compensation and the anonymous gods." Pages 135-194 in J. Rudhardt & O. Reverdin, eds., Le Sacrifice dans l'Antiquité Entretiens Hardt, 27. 1981. Watts, Dorothy.  Religion in Late Roman Britain: Forces of Change.  Routledge, 1998. Williams, James G. “Sacrifice and the Beginning of Kingship.” Semeia 67 (1994): 73-92. Yerkes, Royden Keith. Sacrifice in Greek and Roman Religions and Early Judaism. New York: Scribner's, 1952. Young, Frances. The Use of Sacrificial Ideas in Greek Christian Writersfrom the New Testament to John Chrysostom. Philadelphia: Patristic, 1979. Zwickel, Wolfgang. “Zur Frühgeschichte des Brandopfers in Israel.” Pages 231 - 248 inn Biblische Welten. Festschrift für Martin Metzger zu seinem 65. Geburtstag, ed. W. Zwickel. Orbis biblicus et orientalis 123. Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag, 1993.