Sacrificial Death Research Articles

Beijing Mythological Stories about the Lady of the Bell Foundry

In the second half of the nineteenth century at the latest, a legend emerged in Beijing about the sacrificial death of the founder's daughter during the casting of a large bell for the Bell Tower. It is similar to a group of medieval Chinese tales associated with the cults of patron deities of the crafts. These have their origins in tales from Western regions related to Eastern European stories of walled-up wives. In the case of the Beijing tradition, the religious tale is transformed into a secular legend with, at best, a tenuous connection to a local cult. The story of the casting of a bell for the Bell Tower persists in Beijing's oral tradition to this day. There are also a number of related stories told in other regions of China, as well as Korean tales that are genetically linked to it. The article examines both the structural and semantic features of several mythological stories about the making of a bell for the Bell Tower recorded by Chinese folklorists from the 1950s to the 1980s, alongside those of the first known English (1870s) and the first known Chinese (1930s) amateur recordings of the legend. It also traces the connection of these texts with similar narratives from other regions, as well as with the aforementioned medieval legends of patron deities of crafts, ancient beliefs in the efficacy of human sacrifice for metallurgical production characteristic of the Wu region, and Confucian notions of filial piety.

Comparative Analysis of Sacrifice: Igbo-African Traditional Notion and Christian Understanding in Relation to Notion, Forms, Intentions, and Implications

This article presents a comparative analysis of sacrifice, focusing on the Igbo-African traditional notion and the Christian understanding of sacrifice.The Igbo-African tradition views sacrifice as a means to establish and maintain a harmonious relationship with the divine. Sacrifice is seen as a reciprocal act, where offerings are made to deities or spirits in exchange for blessings and protection. In contrast, the Christian understanding of sacrifice centers around the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, seen as an ultimate act of love and redemption. Jesus’ sacrifice is believed to reconcile humanity with God and provide salvation. While these traditions differ in their rituals and theological interpretations, they share a common goal of seeking a harmonious connection with the divine. This article explores the motivations, practices, and symbolic meanings associated with sacrifice in both traditions, aiming to deepen our understanding of the human quest for spiritual connection and the role of sacrifice in fulfilling this need.

Emblematic Arks in John Donne's "A Hymne To Christ" and the Antwerp Polyglot Bible (1568–73)

Abstract: Noah's ark ([inline-graphic 01] or thebah ) fascinated the Christian Hebraist makers of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible. Their sacred philology interpreted thebah as a singular life-preserving vessel, and their Bible's elegant engravings of thebah insert Christ's crucified body inside it. "Christ's ark," as I call this emblem, figures the life-preserving Resurrection promised in Christ's sacrificial death. I argue that "Christ's ark" informs John Donne's "A Hymne to Christ." In its first stanza, Donne makes a distinctly personal emblem of "Christ's ark," which intersects with the hymn's controversial closing lines. These closing lines express faith in Christ's Resurrection, and, with His Resurrection, Donne's own.

The conversation between the dead and the living in Russian patriotic lyrics of the XX–XXI centuries

The article discusses the formation and development in Russian poetry of the “talk between the dead and the living” genre, the origins of which date back to antiquity and which correlates with the folklore and mythological motif of communication with the other world. In Russian literature, the genre of “conversations in the realm of the dead” appears in the middle of the 18th century in the works of A. P. Sumarokov and M. M. Kheraskov. In the poetry of the 20th century, a typologically related genre of “talking between the dead and the living” is actively developing, which is primarily associated with patriotic lyrics. The motif is based on the appeal of the dead heroes to their descendants. Cross-cutting are the motifs of duty to the Motherland, sacrificial death, courage, memory, military brotherhood, heavenly blessing to the soldiers, prayer, victory. One of the first examples of this genre is Y. Repninsky’s poem «The Death of the Varyag» (1904). In the Soviet period, the genre of «talking between the dead and the living» is typical for the romantic poetry of M. Svetlov of the 1920s, «lyrics of anticipation» by N. Mayorov and P. Kogan. In the genre of conversation with brothers in arms, a poem by A. T. Tvardovsky “I was killed near Rzhev” was written. In the 21st century, the lyrics of the “dead brother” are continued in the poetry of A. Dolgareva and D. Melnikov.

The blood of Christ: Sacrificial death or moral authority?

AbstractThe phrase blood of Christ has traditionally been interpreted as and used interchangeably with Christ's sacrificial death. As such, Jesus’ death is seen to be more crucial to salvation than his incarnation and resurrection. The blood of Christ language in the New Testament books of Hebrews and Romans echoes Old Testament cultic atonement language. Given recent and ample exegetical biblical scholarship that suggests blood of Christ language might refer to Christ's incarnational, resurrected life, we should explore the resulting soteriological implications. What salvific significance is there to the cross if Jesus Christ entered the Most Holy Place with his lifeblood flowing in his veins as David Moffitt asserts? I propose that the cross reveals God's legal and moral authority to forgive sin without minimising the law.

“Beauty and the Beast”: Romance, Reform, and Mystery in the Films of Lon Chaney

“Beauty and the Beast”: Romance, Reform, and Mystery in the Films of Lon Chaney

History unveiled: Theological perspectives from St John’s Revelation

This article aims to highlight St John’s peculiar perspectives on the meaning and the consequences of Christ’s sacrificial death for our apparently evil-dominated history and to bring a new light on the mystery of evil the Book of Revelation speaks about. My analysis begins with St John’s Christocentric perspective on history, continues with the significance of its driving forces revealed in the vision of the seals and ends with an evaluation of the evil triad, which tries to stop the unfolding of the salvific work of God. Alongside Christ, Christians play an essential role in the conflict with these powers and, thus, in transforming the world according to God’s plan. The outcome of this conflict does not depend on which side has more power, as one may conclude under the effect of the violent imagery of the book, but on the Lamb’s blood’s lasting effects, which enable each Christian to become a conqueror, sharing in his Lord’s victory.Contribution: This article highlights some of the contributions of the Book of Revelation to a Christian theology of history and argues that the main point is the overwhelming value of Christ’s blood and its reception for the much expected victory over evil. To transform the world, the victory won by Christ has to be actualised by each of his followers.

Gabriella Gelardini. Deciphering the Worlds of Hebrews: Collected Essays

Gabriella Gelardini. <i>Deciphering the Worlds of Hebrews: Collected Essays</i>

History unveiled: Theological perspectives from St John’s Revelation

This article aims to highlight St John’s peculiar perspectives on the meaning and the consequences of Christ’s sacrificial death for our apparently evil-dominated history and to bring a new light on the mystery of evil the Book of Revelation speaks about. My analysis begins with St John’s Christocentric perspective on history, continues with the significance of its driving forces revealed in the vision of the seals and ends with an evaluation of the evil triad, which tries to stop the unfolding of the salvific work of God. Alongside Christ, Christians play an essential role in the conflict with these powers and, thus, in transforming the world according to God’s plan. The outcome of this conflict does not depend on which side has more power, as one may conclude under the effect of the violent imagery of the book, but on the Lamb’s blood’s lasting effects, which enable each Christian to become a conqueror, sharing in his Lord’s victory. Contribution: This article highlights some of the contributions of the Book of Revelation to a Christian theology of history and argues that the main point is the overwhelming value of Christ’s blood and its reception for the much expected victory over evil. To transform the world, the victory won by Christ has to be actualised by each of his followers.

The dynamics of worship

Mediaeval liturgies embodied the understanding that the offering of worship became united with Christ’s perfect offering to the Father and was therefore deemed to be as acceptable to God as though it had been offered by Christ himself. It was an offering of worship that embraced the arts. Their beauty and the sense of transcendence that they created revealed the beauty and transcendence of the divine. This understanding of worship changed dramatically with the reformers of the mid-sixteenth century. They insisted that the incorporation of any human offering into Christ’s perfect and once-only offering illegitimately compromised the purpose and effect of his sacrificial death. Instead, the proper offering consisted of a thankful remembrance of Christ’s only perfect and acceptable offering. Moreover, this offering needed to be an offering, not of the body, being inherently corrupt, but of the spirit. Since there was now no prospect of incorporation with the divine, any idea of worship creating a sense of transcendence or of experiencing heaven on earth was futile. So there developed an intense opposition to any works of art whose purpose was to invest worship with the means of facilitating such a union of the human and the divine. These works were now dismissed as idolatrous and an impediment to true worship. From the early seventeenth century this position, so fervently embraced by the reformers, began to be significantly revised and developed, even allowing for a significant rehabilitation of the pre-reformed understanding.

Motif of Death in Ukrainian-Canadian Poetry

Purpose of the research is to study the originality of interpretation of death in the lyrics of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada in the context of the opposition "foreign land – motherland", based on its existential development in philosophical anthropology and culture of the last two centuries. Its implementation presupposes, first of all, analysis of the forms of development and disclosure of the death motif by figurative and artistic means. Theoretical basis. The author uses the well-founded tradition of interpreting the death motif in philosophical literature of the last centuries, i.e. non-classical and modern philosophical thought. Originality. The present study is an attempt at systematization of the notions of death in Ukrainian poetry in Canada in the second half of the 20th century. It is based on the study of artistic texts and the worldview of Ukrainian emigrants. Appeal to the fiction of the Ukrainian Diaspora allows illustrating the originality of philosophical understanding of death in the context of the national culture. Conclusions. Reference to Ukrainian-Canadian poetry allows expanding the space of philosophical understanding of death in the form of figurative fiction. Concretizing the character of their interpretation of the motif of death, it is necessary to focus attention on its two basic forms of manifestation: existential, associated with living abroad, and sacrificial death for the benefit of the homeland. Thus, the motif of death occupies a significant place in the lyrics of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. The concept of human death is closely connected with the concept of life, which is concretized through their meaningful comprehension. This is a matter of interpretation of despair and loneliness motifs, as well as the illumination of the images of a foreign land, which is one of the features of emigrant literature in general.

Populism and its Economic Impact: What Does the Evidence Say?

Populism is an essentially contested phenomenon due to its complex nature. Even more difficult is to study its economic consequences. This paper aims to study populism as an economic phenomenon by reviewing literature devoted to studying its economic impacts. The paper starts with a brief overview of the concept of populism and its history. Further, it delves into economic literature that has so far tried to study its empirical effects on economies around the world. The paper seeks to investigate whether the long-held conceptions of economic theory are corroborated by empirical evidence or not.n act of redemption, but his sacrificial death is far from being suicidal because he did not allow the powers of temptations to lead him astray.

The Archbishop Who Fell in Love with Martyrdom: Characterization in Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral

This paper aims to analyze the characters of T.S Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral in an endeavor to prove that Eliot’s characterization in the play is not to be tackled using conventional ways of analysis. Embracing these ways in the previous studies of the play resulted in a faulty assessment of characters as lacking psychological depth and dramatic tension. The paper argues that the method of character depiction employed in the play is meant to produce a ritualistic work celebrating Becket’s martyrdom and glorifying the ideas it stands for. Since martyrdom is the central idea that the play revolves around, glorification of the individual is not expected, for what it requires is self-abnegation or self-erasure. Hence, the study proves that Thomas Becket did the right thing for the right cause after passing all the tests of faith similar to those described in morality plays and transcending the strong temptations he underwent. It is evident that Becket fell in love with martyrdom as an act of redemption, but his sacrificial death is far from being suicidal because he did not allow the powers of temptations to lead him astray.

Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature by Elizabeth Outka (review).

Reviewed by: Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature by Elizabeth Outka Bridget English (bio) Elizabeth Outka. Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. 344 pp. Paperback, $35.00. The eerily prescient publication of Viral Modernism—a book that interrogates the conspicuous absence of direct references to the pandemic of 1918 in British and American interwar literature—mere months before the outbreak of COVID-19 could be read as a fortuitous coincidence. But as Elizabeth Outka warns in her chilling coda, scientists and researchers have been telling us for years that "we are not ready for the next severe global pandemic, which—as they also remind us—is most assuredly coming" (254). Outka could not have known as she wrote those words how soon the COVID pandemic would overwhelm the world. However, this book is not simply a precursor to the scholarship on the history of pandemics and their literary manifestations that will undoubtedly follow the present pandemic: it is instead part of a substantial subfield of health humanities scholarship that emerged in the early 2000s and focuses on historical and literary accounts of the 1918 flu pandemic. The question that underlies much of this scholarship is why, despite the fact that the flu killed between 50 and 100 million people, it is not directly referenced in the literature of that period. Viral Modernism succeeds in remapping modernist studies by placing the pandemic at its center, a move that requires a reframing of certain assumptions about this period, such as why the lives lost in war were more grievable than those lost to illness.1 Outka's point is that the pandemic dead were ungrievable because they could not be made meaningful through the guise of sacrificial death, and therefore were not politically useful. Viral Modernism provides a crucial frame for [End Page 191] literary and cultural studies more widely by reading modernist texts and films through two inventive tropes: "miasma" and "viral resurrection." The first of these, miasma, focuses on the "spectral realities" of the pandemic's "absent presence" in novels like Mrs. Dalloway or poems like "The Second Coming" (5-6). "Viral resurrection" describes the embodied illness apparent in the resurfaced corpses, zombies, and disfigured bodies of literature and culture in this period, which highlight the pandemic's lasting effects on survivors who often experienced a feeling of living death. Outka's larger point here is that analyzing an experience of illness that is "simultaneously widespread and hidden" offers a model for the recuperation of voices that have been ignored because "the viral, dust-like form at the heart of the story was itself invisible and silent" (37). Viral Modernism is effectively divided into an introductory chapter and three parts: one focused on the realist novels of Willa Cather, Katherine Anne Porter, Thomas Wolfe, and William Maxwell; the second concentrated on major modernist writers Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, and W. B. Yeats; and a final chapter addressing the pandemic in popular culture, examining spiritualism, proto-zombies, and the return of the dead in the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and Abel Gance's film J'accuse. Outka's choice of largely canonical authors might initially seem predictable, but she offers surprisingly original insights into well-known texts such as The Waste Land, with famous lines such as "I had not thought death had undone so many" becoming suddenly more haunting when read as a reference to flu victims. The introductory section displays Outka's meticulous research on the lived experiences of survivors of the virus and points to her ethical commitment to interrogating the human tendency to describe illness by using metaphors. Viral Modernism opens with a striking list of modernist writers whose lives were deeply impacted by the flu. Some, like Porter and D. H. Lawrence, became so ill that they barely survived, while others, like Woolf, turned her own experiences into a reflection on illness. Eliot worried about the effects the flu would have on his brain, while Yeats agonized over the condition of his pregnant wife, who also had a near-fatal encounter with the virus. Individually these references provide interesting anecdotes; together...

An Anti-Imperial Mythology

Critics have read Howards End as if Forster ‘specifically barred’ the poor from the novel (Trilling), so that only the middle classes are considered and not in a ‘truly radical’ way (Crews). Yet Forster does, after all, concern himself with the very poor in his depiction of Leonard Bast, Jacky and other characters, and extensively in the thoughts of Margaret. Furthermore, he creates the myth he says England lacks, and, considered in relationship to the main narrative events and to the novel’s imagery, this takes the form of an anti-imperialist mythology. Mythic elements include epic journeys and battles, a symbolic sword and tree, a sacrificial death and a redemptive child. In the novel’s poetic passages and in its account of Margaret’s education on the ‘hard road of Henry’s soul’, the nature of England’s imperialism is revealed and defeated by an alternative radical and feminist vision of society.

So Great a Salvation: A Dialogue on the Atonement in Hebrews

So Great a Salvation: A Dialogue on the Atonement in Hebrews

The Convict’s Gibbet and the Victor’s Car: The Triumphal Death of Marcus Atilius Regulus and the Background of Col 2:15

AbstractThis article will suggest that scholars have overlooked a model plausibly lurking in the background of Col 2:15 which parallels the triumphal death of Christ: namely, the crucifixion of Regulus. Regulus was a general who achieved a near-mythic status during the First Punic War by his sacrificial death, in which his perseverance on the gibbet was seen as even greater than riding in the victor’s car. Tertullian credited Regulus as having set the precedent for enduring the torments of the cross, while others declared him as having overcome through death not only his human foes but also Lady Fortune. Regulus’ story enjoyed so much widespread popularity it was admitted in the curriculum of Roman schools by the middle of the first century CE. Because Regulus’ epic contains low-hanging fruit, ripe for comparison with Christ’s crucifixion, Christians drew upon the story of Regulus from at least as early as Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Arnobius, and Augustine. Nevertheless, scholars have overlooked the possible parallels with Regulus’ story and Christ’s triumphal death in Col 2:15. I will first provide a composite depiction of Regulus’ military life and sacrificial death along with its reported ramifications in order to tease out similarities and differences with Col 2:15 and finally conclude with comments concerning the significance of including the legend as additional background for the verse. In short, I will propose that reading Regulus’ story in comparison with Col 2:15 supports an anti-imperial and/or a supra-imperial reading of the letter.

The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles by Brandon D. Crowe

Reviewed by: The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles by Brandon D. Crowe David M. Miller brandon d. crowe, The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020). Pp. xvi + 239. Paper $29.99. In The Hope of Israel, Brandon D. Crowe establishes the centrality of the resurrection in Acts and explains how this major theme functions “as a powerful theological adhesive that contributes to the theological unity of Acts” (p. 5). C. acknowledges, and his richly documented footnotes confirm, that the resurrection of Jesus is already widely regarded as central to Acts and a unifying theme. The justification for yet another detailed treatment of the resurrection in Acts (apart from its sheer importance) is, C. contends, that few studies “have provided a sustained and integrated consideration of Luke’s contribution in light of the scope of biblical and systematic theology” (p. 14). The book is divided into two four-chapter sections. Part 1 identifies references to the resurrection, explores how they function within their narrative context, and highlights recurring emphases. After a review of “The State of the Question” that introduces the book as a whole and prepares for the exegesis in the rest of part 1, Peter and Paul receive dedicated chapters of their own; more minor characters are treated in chap. 4. In addition to speeches, C. considers events that may echo the resurrection of Jesus, including Paul’s conversion, Peter’s miraculous escape from prison, and the restoration of Eutychus to life. Because egeirō and anistēmi are frequently employed in connection with the “raising up” of Jesus from the dead, these common Greek verbs become freighted with significance, perhaps unduly so. C. detects references to Jesus’s resurrection not only in the “raising up” of a prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22–26) and in the “raising up” of David as king over Israel (Acts 13:22) but also in the “raising” of lame men from the ground (Acts 3:7; 14:10), in the “arising” of Paul after he was left for dead outside of Lystra (Acts 14:20), in the “raising” of Judas the Galilean, who appears in ironic contrast with Jesus the risen Messiah (Acts 5:37), and in the “arising” of Gamaliel, the resurrection-believing Pharisee, who stood up (anastas) to speak in the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:34). Part 2 takes a more systematic approach, synthesizing and expanding on some of the emphases noted in part 1, and considering the implications of the resurrection for other theological topics in Acts. In chap. 5, “The Resurrection and the Accomplishment of Salvation,” C. asks what changed with this “turning point” in salvation history. In the first place, he argues that the resurrection is presented in Acts as the vindication of Jesus’s perfect obedience and sacrificial death. Here one observes a marked increase in C.’s citations from other biblical texts and from systematic theologians in the Reformed tradition to support the limited evidence he can muster from Acts. Readers who do not share C.’s systematic impulse are unlikely to be persuaded that this is a significant emphasis within Luke-Acts [End Page 334] itself. According to C., the resurrection in Acts also inaugurates the Davidic Messiah’s reign, signals a “new experience” in Jesus’s Lordship, enables the gift of the Spirit, and relativizes traditional Jewish institutions and practices. In chap. 6, C. emphasizes continuity between pre-and postresurrection experiences of “salvation,” understood in terms of forgiveness of sins and justification. According to C., Luke held that believers before the resurrection experienced forgiveness, justification, and the Holy Spirit on the basis of the future death and resurrection of Jesus. (The possibility that salvation, for Luke, was a broader concept than justification and forgiveness of sins is not considered.) In chap. 7, C. proposes that Luke wrote Acts partly as an apologia pro scriptura, confirming the truthfulness of Scripture by insisting that the resurrection fulfills Scripture. This seems backwards. More likely, Luke appealed to Scripture because his audience took its truthfulness for granted. The final chapter turns from the content of Acts to the place...

Western attitudes toward soldiers’ death: from the early modern period to the present

ABSTRACT The article provides a reconstruction of how western attitudes towards soldiers’ deaths have changed throughout history. By relying on the analytic lenses offered by Kantorowicz’ concept of ‘the king’s two bodies’, the narrative told in the present study develops through three main stages from the end of the fifteenth century until the present era. In particular, an age in which soldiers’ death was accepted as a socially meaningless cessation was followed by a period when death in war was regarded as a glorious sacrifice to end up with the sensitivity towards casualties typical of the current era. I shall refer to these epochal shifts as a transition from bare death to sacrificial death and, finally, to irrecoverable death. By offering a narrative of how the soldier has evolved from an expendable fighting tool into a precious individual, the article sheds light on some of the distinguishing traits of contemporary warfare.

Autophagy Is Involved in Mesenchymal Stem Cell Death in Coculture with Chondrocytes.

ObjectiveCartilage formation is stimulated in mixtures of chondrocytes and human adipose–derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) both in vitro and in vivo. During coculture, human MSCs perish. The goal of this study is to elucidate the mechanism by which adipose tissue–derived MSC cell death occurs in the presence of chondrocytes.MethodsHuman primary chondrocytes were cocultured with human MSCs derived from 3 donors. The cells were cultured in monoculture or coculture (20% chondrocytes and 80% MSCs) in pellets (200,000 cells/pellet) for 7 days in chondrocyte proliferation media in hypoxia (2% O2). RNA sequencing was performed to assess for differences in gene expression between monocultures or coculture. Immune fluorescence assays were performed to determine the presence of caspase-3, LC3B, and P62.ResultsRNA sequencing revealed significant upregulation of >90 genes in the 3 cocultures when compared with monocultures. STRING analysis showed interconnections between >50 of these genes. Remarkably, 75% of these genes play a role in cell death pathways such as apoptosis and autophagy. Immunofluorescence shows a clear upregulation of the autophagic machinery with no substantial activation of the apoptotic pathway.ConclusionIn cocultures of human MSCs with primary chondrocytes, autophagy is involved in the disappearance of MSCs. We propose that this sacrificial cell death may contribute to the trophic effects of MSCs on cartilage formation.