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22 - Sacrifice, gifts, and prayers in Latin Christianity

from Part IV - Christianity as Lived Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2010

By
Arnold Angenendt
Edited by
Thomas F. X. Noble  and
Julia M. H. Smith
Thomas F. X. Noble
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Julia M. H. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Summary

Sacrifice has a role in all religions. Sacrifices are made to God or to gods in the hope of obtaining something which is beyond the realm of human action – something which can be achieved only by a more powerful force: a good harvest, health, protection from misfortune, continued life, a better life, and finally, eternal life itself. Sacrifices are made to God, or to the gods, in the hope that in their omnipotence they will grant those things which are believed to be essential to life, but which cannot be achieved by humans. This adds greatly to the subtleties within the performance of cult and ritual, and also increases the value of the sacrificial object itself. In order to obtain from God that which is unobtainable by humanity, the most valuable of items are offered, even human life. As a result sacrifice always involves art and ceremony, the most precious of human things in their highest form.

The altar is the central physical location of all sacrificial cults, for it is a divine site in the human world. Any item placed on the altar has entered a divine sphere and no longer belongs to humankind. Some sacrificial objects are removed forever (in sacrifice they are rendered non-functional or consumed in fire) while other objects return to the human world transfigured and endowed with divine power. Examples of the latter include flesh sacrificed for the community of the cult or foodstuffs laid on the altar in the belief that they will acquire the power to fortify.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 453 - 471
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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