Ritual and Metaphor

The sanctuary and rituals that formed the heart of ancient Judaism ceased to exist a long time ago, yet their images and concepts, especially that of sacrifice, have remained essential to the rhetoric of politics, religion, and secular culture. Pervasive sacrificial metaphors range from religious foundations for human ethics to attempts to glorify victims of military operations or natural disasters to much-debated ideas of vicarious atonement within Christianity. The essays in this volume deal with central aspects of sacrificial rituals and processes of metaphor development and spiritualization in Judaism and Christianity.