What the Gods Demand: Blood Sacrifice in Mediterranean Antiquity
An interdisciplinary conference at Boston University
November 19-21, 2008
(to precede the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston)
Organized By
Jennifer Wright Knust (School of Theology/Religion, CAS)
Zsuzsanna Várhelyi (Classical Studies, CAS)
Sponsored By
Boston University School of Theology Development and Alumni Relations Office
Center for Philosophy and History of Science
Department of Classical Studies
Department of Religion
Luce Program in Scripture and Literary
Arts, Boston University
The Brown Lecture Series, School of Theology
The Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies
The Florence Chavetz Hillel House
The Humanities Foundation
The New England Maritimes Region, American Academy of Religion
The School of Theology
The William Goodwin Aurelio Endowment
On-site registration will be available
--Abstract--
In recent years, there has been an important reappraisal of the multiple meanings and functions of sacrifice in the ancient world. Whether understood as an act of imitatio Dei, a ritual designed to please or appease a deity, or a substitutionary offering that wards off danger, sacrifice can no longer be explained solely in terms of surrogate victims and a need for bloodletting that atones. Re-evaluations of human sacrifice—as metaphor and as practice—have been equally important, demonstrating the rhetorical function of charges of ritual murder as well as the place of ceremonial death in numerous religious settings. This conference will build upon and advance these new developments in the study of ancient sacrifice by gathering an inter-disciplinary group of historians, scholars of religion, archaeologists and epigraphers to consider the conceptualizations of the
divine implied by bloody rites. The geographical and chronological parameters of the proposed conference are intentionally limited—we invite papers that address groups, texts, inscriptions, literary works and practices associated with the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the Mediterranean—as is the focus on the divine aspect. The questions considered, however, will be far-reaching, as scholars from diverse disciplines engage in a rich conversation regarding the practices and perceptions of sacrificial death in multiple contexts across the ancient world. The conference will be followed by an edited volume of essays on the same topic.
Ra¹anan Boustan, Assistant Professor of Early Judaism and Ancient Mediterranean Religions, UCLA
→ “The Blood of Zechariah in the Jerusalem Temple: Between Narrative Resolution and Social Conflict”
Jan Bremmer, Onassis Senior Visiting Scholar, Visiting Leventis Professor, Classics Department, University of Edinburgh, and Professor of Science of Religion and Comparative Religious Studies, Department of Religious Studies and History of Christianity, University of Groningen
→ “The Sacrifice of Iphigeneia in Aulis: Literary and Visual Representations ”
Joan R. Branham, Associate Professor of Art History, Providence College
→ “Mapping Sacrifice on Bodies and Spaces in Late-Antique Judaism and Christianity”
David Frankfurter, Professor of Religious Studies and History, University of New Hampshire
→ “Egyptian Religion and the Problem of the Category Sacrifice”
Paula Fredriksen, Aurelio Professor of Scripture, Boston University
→ “'We Can be Purified only by Blood' (C. Faustum 18.6): Augustine’s Defense of Jewish Sacrifice”
Fritz Graf, Professor of Greek and Latin, Ohio State University
→ “A Satirist's Sacrifices. Lucian's On Sacrifices and the Debate on Religious Traditions”
William Gilders, Associate Professor of Religion, Emory University
→ “Jewish Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function”
J. Albert Harrill, Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University
→ “Divine Judgment against Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11): A Scene of Perjury”
Andrew Jacobs, Associate Professor of Religion, University of California (Riverside)
→ “Passing: Jesus' Circumcision and Strategic Self-Sacrifice”
Sarah Iles Johnston, Professor of Greek and Latin, Ohio State University
→ "Porphyry on Sacrifice"
Kathryn McClymond, Associate Professor of Religion, Georgia State University
→ “Don’t Cry Over Spilled Blood”
Laura Nasrallah, Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Harvard University
→ “The Embarrassment of Blood: Sacrifice and Rational Worship (I-II CE)"
James B. Rives, Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina
→ “The Theology of Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World: Origins and Developments”
Michele R. Salzman, Professor of History, University of California (Riverside)
→ “The End of Public Sacrifice, or changing definitions of Sacrifice in the Post Constantinian World?”
Stanley Stowers, Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University
→ "The Religion of Plant and Animal Offerings Versus the Religion of Meanings, Essences and Textual Mysteries"
Philippa Townsend, University Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
→ "Sacrifice and Theologies of Race in the Roman Empire"
Daniel Ullucci, Lecturer, College of the Holy Cross
→ “Contesting the Meaning of Animal Sacrifice”