Understanding Religious Sacrifice

Jeffrey Carter is Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina.

"Understanding Sacrifice is a revelatory read! Scholars and students alike will be treated to a telling history of continuous Western speculation on the meaning of sacrifice for over a century. At the same time, these judicious selections reveal the extent to which sacrifice, constituted as a problem, has informed the shape of the academic study of religion. Teachers will find Understanding Sacrifice to be a useful tool to introduce students to the diverse theories generated to explain the nature of religion and to the methodological approaches (psychological, sociological, anthropological, phenomenological, functionalist, structuralist, etc.) that have been applied to the study of religion. This reader is a most welcome volume." --Gary L. Ebersole, Professor of History & Religious Studies and Director, UMKC Center for Religious Studies

• Understanding Religious Sacrifice is a revelatory read! Scholars and students alike will be treated to a telling history of continuous Western speculation on the meaning of sacrifice for over a century. At the same time, these judicious selections reveal the extent to which sacrifice, constituted as a problem, has informed the shape of the academic study of religion. Teachers will find Understanding Religious Sacrifice to be a useful tool to introduce students to the diverse theories generated to explain the nature of religion and to the methodological approaches (psychological, sociological, anthropological, phenomenological, functionalist, structuralist, etc.) that have been applied to the study of religion. This reader is a most welcome volume. Gary L. Ebersole; Professor of History & Religious Studies; Director, UMKC Center for Religious Studies; Finally an anthology of the best classical and contemporary scholarly treatments of religious sacrifice. This is an invaluable resource for all professors, students, and scholars interested in one of the most important subjects in the study of religion. Professor Brian K. Smith, University of California, Riverside; In these skilfully edited excerpts, Jeffrey Carter enables students and general readers to advance both their appreciation of sacrifice and their awareness of modern concealments. Professor Bruce Chilton, Bard College; 'Carter's book is the first to my knowledge that brings together a comprehensive collection of the major theories of sacrifice from the last 200 years. The excerpted texts are brief enough to be manageable but long enough to capture the main points in each of the authors' arguments. This is an important volume that will be of great value in the classroom and of general interest to anyone interested in religious studies, anthropology or sociology. I enjoyed reading it.' Hugh B. Urban, Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Studies, Ohio State University; 'This anthology provides a unique resource on sacrifice, on religion, and on the diversity that has marked modern interpretations of both. I will definitely require this book when I teach my seminar on sacrifice.' Jim Watts, Associate Professor of Religion, Syracuse University; 'Confronting the massive scope of approaches to the problem of sacrifice inspires both euphoria and vertigo in the reader. What a boon, then, Jeffrey Carter has presented to scholars of religion. Through his painstaking selections, incisive introductions to each, and introductory essay, Carter maps difficult terrain and renders it manageable. The volume succeeds magnificently on two levels: first, demonstrating the variety of theoretical positions that inform sacrifice's itinerary, and second, convincingly showing how theories of sacrifices are related to, and embedded within, theories of religion more broadly. In the new global context of the resurgent public religions, a resurgence often taking violent forms, no scholar should long remain wit