A series of public lectures and colloquia in the Academic Year 2008/09.
Given that sacrifice is at the heart of traditional religion, it is not surprising that increasing research in religion over the past decade has led to a renewed interest in sacrifice as well. In many ways the study of sacrifice seems to be emblematic for the promises as well as the difficulties that have beset the study of religion overall: understanding its significance appears to offer the key for some of the most central elements of human interaction, such as gift exchange, renunciation, or violence; at the same time its very conceptualisation in a way not already presupposing a particular framework of interpretation (for example that of Christian theology) seems ever more elusive. This project looks at modern debates about sacrifice in an interdisciplinary context. It includes theological, anthropological, historical, and philosophical perspectives.
Events in Michaelmas term 2008
Day Colloquium: Sacrifice and Modern Thought
- Johannes Zachhuber: Sacrifice in modern discourse and its theological background
Response: Paul Fiddes
- Gavin Flood: Sacrifice as metaphor
Response: Steven Mulhall
- Pamela Anderson: Feminists on Sacrifice
Response: Daphne Hampson
- Chris Gosden: Sacrifice. A perspective from both anthropology and prehistory
Response: Laura Rival
Public Lecture: Tariq Ramadan (St Antony’s College)
Sacrifice in Modern Islamic Thought
alt : Ramadan lecture.mp3
Events in Hilary term 2009
Day Colloquium: The construction of sacrifice in modernity and postmodernity
- P Fiddes (Regent’s Park College): Sacrifice, atonement and renewal: intersections between Girard, Kristeva and Von Balthasar
Response: Bernd Wannenwetsch
alt : fiddes.mp3
- J Frazier (OCHS): The rise of Religious Studies and the construction of ‘sacrifice’
Response: Johannes Zachhuber
alt : frazier.mp3
- W Palaver (Innsbruck): Sacrificial cults as ‘the mysterious centre of every religion’: A Girardian assessment of Aby Warburg’s theory of religion
Response: Gavin Flood
alt : palaver.mp3
- D Hampson (St Cross): Why sacrifice?
Response: Joel Rasmussen
alt : daphne.mp3
Public Lecture: Robert Parker (New College)
Greek sacrifice: the big issues
Public Lecture: Gianni Vattimo (Torino)
Weak thinking and the decline of sacrifice
Day Colloquium: Sacrifice and the Culture of Violence
- M Petropoulou (Athens): The scope of sacrificial metaphors in Early Christian texts
Response: Johannes Zachhuber
- Y. Sherwood (Glasgow): Human sacrifice between Abraham and the ‘New World’
Response: Peter Harrison
alt : sherwood.mp3
- J Pahl (Philadelphia): Sacrifice in the history of American cinema
Response: George Pattison
alt : pahl.mp3
Events in Trinity term 2009
Public Lecture: David Brown (St Andrews)
Sacrifice and Imagination: Finding God in Evil
alt : brown.wma
Day Colloquium: Sacrifice as Offering
- R. Seaford (Exeter): Sacrifice and the Gift in Ancient Greece
Response: Robert Parkeralt : seaford.wma
- L. Rival (Linacre College): A Lowland South American Perspective on Human Sacrifice among the Mexica (Aztecs)
Response: Johannes Zachhuberalt : rival.wma
- N Allen (Wolfson College): Using Marcel Mauss to think about sacrifice
Response: Gavin Floodalt : allen.wma
- B Wannenwetsch (Harris Manchester College): Sacrifice as Gift
Response: Paul Fiddes
Public Lecture: Derek Hughes (Aberdeen)
Human Sacrifice and the Literary Imagination
alt : hughes.wma
Public Lecture: Martin Goodman (Wolfson College)
Ideas about sacrifice in early Rabbinic Judaism
alt : goodman.wma
