Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Sacrifice in Pauline writings
The model of sacrifice seems essential to Paul's theology. In order to understand the model it is important to recognise that the current evangelical concept of sacrifice, at least as I have encountered it, is determined by evangelical atonement theory. The doctrine of penal substitution says that Jesus' death is a substitution for our own death, the penalty for our sins. This feeds back into ideas of what sacrifice is about, so sacrifice is seen as the substitution of life for life. However, this concept of sacrifice is not that accepted by anthropologists.
Studies of sacrifice in various cultures has shown that sacrifice is essentially about establishing and maintaining relationships. The sacrifice performs two functions, communion and expiation. In practice both aspects are often found to be present in the same sacrificial act, and they could be understood as two aspects of the relationship forming function of sacrifice. Communion is about joining with others; the other could be the deity, the group or both. Expiation is about separating from that which impairs communion. Often the sacrifice is consumed by the one making the offering, thus establishing the relationship through a shared meal. In other cases it may be that the simple act of the offerer giving a gift and the one being offered accepting that gift, creates the link between offerer and acceptor.
Essential to Christian thought is that Jesus brings about or restores relationship with God, and part of this reconciliation is that the the faithful are separated from sin, whatever it is that previously created a barrier between humanity and God. In this context sacrifice is a metaphor - Jesus performs the role that is normally performed by a sacrifice. The metaphor seems apt because Jesus did actually die.
A common notion in the Pauline writings and the gospel of John is that the faithful participates in Jesus. Jesus is a new Adam, who creates a new humanity in which we now share in his life as we once shared in Adam's death. The sacraments in particular are also seen as, at the very least, symbols of the faithful dying and rising with Christ. This idea of participation also feeds the sacrificial metaphor, in which the people consume the sacrifice. It could be argued that the notion of participation arises out of use of the sacrificial metaphor. However, many of the fourth gospel's participation images of not of a sacrificial type: the vine and branches, bread from heaven, reciprocal indwelling. I therefore think that the salvific concept of sharing in Christ is independent of the sacrifice metaphor, and that the sacrifice metaphor is one way of picturing this concept.
Pamela Eisenbaum makes an interesting argument about Paul's use of the concept of sacrifice in relation to Jesus' death and how it brings Jews and Gentiles together in a single family of Abraham ("A Remedy for Having Been Born of Woman: Jesus, Gender, and Genealogy in Romans," in SBL Seminar Papers (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2000) pp. 494-519. This essay is also published on the Web at www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/SBL2000/home.htm)).
She argues that sacrifice often provides the mechanism by which sons are recognised by fathers. This applies to societies where descent is traced through the male line, which presents a biological problem of acceptance. Sacrifice is suited to this purpose because of its function in establishing and maintaining relationships. She argues that for Paul Jesus' death is the sacrifice that joins Gentiles to the family of Abraham, the line of the promise. Through coming to the sacrifice by faith in baptism, God accepts Gentiles as Abraham's offspring.
The use of sacrifice is rejected by some as implying an angry or bloodthirsty God, especially a male God, who demands the death of his own son. However, I don't believe that this necessarily has to be the case. It is a metaphor that brings out the whole idea of sharing in Christ, communion with God and separation from evil, and perhaps the coming together of Jew and Gentile in the line of Abraham.
Studies of sacrifice in various cultures has shown that sacrifice is essentially about establishing and maintaining relationships. The sacrifice performs two functions, communion and expiation. In practice both aspects are often found to be present in the same sacrificial act, and they could be understood as two aspects of the relationship forming function of sacrifice. Communion is about joining with others; the other could be the deity, the group or both. Expiation is about separating from that which impairs communion. Often the sacrifice is consumed by the one making the offering, thus establishing the relationship through a shared meal. In other cases it may be that the simple act of the offerer giving a gift and the one being offered accepting that gift, creates the link between offerer and acceptor.
Essential to Christian thought is that Jesus brings about or restores relationship with God, and part of this reconciliation is that the the faithful are separated from sin, whatever it is that previously created a barrier between humanity and God. In this context sacrifice is a metaphor - Jesus performs the role that is normally performed by a sacrifice. The metaphor seems apt because Jesus did actually die.
A common notion in the Pauline writings and the gospel of John is that the faithful participates in Jesus. Jesus is a new Adam, who creates a new humanity in which we now share in his life as we once shared in Adam's death. The sacraments in particular are also seen as, at the very least, symbols of the faithful dying and rising with Christ. This idea of participation also feeds the sacrificial metaphor, in which the people consume the sacrifice. It could be argued that the notion of participation arises out of use of the sacrificial metaphor. However, many of the fourth gospel's participation images of not of a sacrificial type: the vine and branches, bread from heaven, reciprocal indwelling. I therefore think that the salvific concept of sharing in Christ is independent of the sacrifice metaphor, and that the sacrifice metaphor is one way of picturing this concept.
Pamela Eisenbaum makes an interesting argument about Paul's use of the concept of sacrifice in relation to Jesus' death and how it brings Jews and Gentiles together in a single family of Abraham ("A Remedy for Having Been Born of Woman: Jesus, Gender, and Genealogy in Romans," in SBL Seminar Papers (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2000) pp. 494-519. This essay is also published on the Web at www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/SBL2000/home.htm)).
She argues that sacrifice often provides the mechanism by which sons are recognised by fathers. This applies to societies where descent is traced through the male line, which presents a biological problem of acceptance. Sacrifice is suited to this purpose because of its function in establishing and maintaining relationships. She argues that for Paul Jesus' death is the sacrifice that joins Gentiles to the family of Abraham, the line of the promise. Through coming to the sacrifice by faith in baptism, God accepts Gentiles as Abraham's offspring.
The use of sacrifice is rejected by some as implying an angry or bloodthirsty God, especially a male God, who demands the death of his own son. However, I don't believe that this necessarily has to be the case. It is a metaphor that brings out the whole idea of sharing in Christ, communion with God and separation from evil, and perhaps the coming together of Jew and Gentile in the line of Abraham.
