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  2. RELIGION 1032B

Sacrifice: Theory and Praxis II
RELIGION 1032B

Jointly Offered with: Harvard Divinity School as HDS 3254B

Course Information

Description

A comparative examination of the paradoxical ritual of sacrifice in a range of religious traditions where it is featured, rejected, or sublimated.  We will consider types of sacrifice, blood and bloodless offerings, and recurrent religious concepts: e.g., cosmogony, consecration, thanksgiving, communion, reciprocity, substitution, efficacy, violence, transgression, expiation, catharsis, human and divine hierarchy, gendered and racialized dimensions, and sacerdotal authority. We will also consider leading theories of sacrifice. Students will be encouraged to develop their own research and understanding. In the second semester, we will study the history of sacrifice in the Ancient Near East and ancient Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Carthage, Egypt, and Israel), and in the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). 

 

Please see course note.

Course Notes

Offered jointly with Harvard Divinity School as 3254B. It is not necessary to have taken Religion 1032A/3254A to take Religion 1032B/3254B.

School Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Course Component Conference Course
Subject Religion
Grading Basis FAS Letter Graded
General Education N/A
Quantitative Reasoning with Data N/A
Divisional Distribution Arts and Humanities
Course Level For Undergraduate and Graduate Students