History 280B: Sacrifice: A History of the Secular Imagination

As practice and concept, sacrifice bridges and binds the sacred and secular. Libations to the gods, the sacrifice of Isaac, the Crucifixion, Arlington Cemetery, the martyrs of sect and nation, gifts and offerings, ethical relations — the terrain of sacrifice compasses the ancient and the modern, the religious and the political, the devotional and the profane. This course will explore, largely in the context of the modern Christian west (post-1500), the life and afterlife of sacrifice. The broad goal will be to develop an historical understanding of the relationship between what is usually taken to be a religious past and a secular present. Readings will include key works on the theory of sacrifice, some foundational texts from the ancient world (Greek, Roman, Christian), primary readings in early modern theology and biblical scholarship, early works in anthropology from the 17th- to the 19th-centuries, and key texts in political theology, as well as general theoretical literature on secularization and the secular.