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sacrifice

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
[Lat. sacrificare =to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction. Sacrifices may be performed on a regular basis, according to established patterns of daily, monthly, or seasonal acts, or on special occasions, notably at important times in an individual's life (birth, puberty, marriage, death), and in the face of extraordinary conditions. The purpose of the act is either to establish or sustain a proper relationship with the god or gods. Sacrifices may simply express homage and veneration, or they may give thanks for good fortune. Sacrifices of supplication are intended to provoke good fortune, and sacrifices of expiation are offered to appease the divine wrath kindled by humanity's transgression of other arrangements. Humans have been known to sacrifice anything that they have ever used or produced; the oblation may be left exposed; poured, if liquid, into the ground; or burned. The…
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Full text Article Sacrifice

From Book of Bible Quotations
And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord ; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the…
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Full text Article sacrifice

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
[Lat. sacrificare =to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction. Sacrifices may be performed on a regular basis, according to established patterns of daily, monthly, or seasonal acts, or on special…
| 614 words
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Full text Article Sacrifice

From The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion
Sacrifice describes ritual–symbolic behaviour grounded in idioms of vitality, used to correct social malpractice, counteract mortality, and foster human flourishing. Sacrifices help configure religious worldviews and are theoretically important because the emotional impact of death generates the…
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Full text Article Sacrifice

From Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology
Christianity has always tended to use the term ‘sacrifice’ with caution, largely owing to its association with non-Christian religious practice. For example, sacrifice pervaded ancient pagan religion , where it usually ritualized the relationship between people and their gods, especially at focal…
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Full text Article SACRIFICE

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
* Augustine of Hippo offered an explicit treatment on the characteristics and the function of sacrifice. He maintained that in every sacrifice one must consider four aspects: (1) the one to whom sacrifice is offered (God), (2) the one who performs the offering (a holy and righteous priest), (3) what…
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Full text Article sacrifice

From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
William Robertson Smith placed sacrifice at the centre of anthropological theories of religion , morality and kinship in 1886. Defining ‘sacrifice’ in the Encyclopedia Brittanica (9th edn), he wrote that the Latin word sacrificium , from which we have the English ‘sacrifice’, ‘properly means an…
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From The Macquarie Dictionary
the offering of life (animal, plant, or human) or some material possession, etc., to a deity, as in propitiation or homage. Plural: sacrifices that which is so offered. Plural: sacrifices the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a…
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Full text Article sacrifice

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
a. The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or a person. b. A victim offered in this way. a. The act of giving up something highly valued for the sake of something else considered to have a greater value or claim: Social…
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Full text Article sacrifices

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The ritual practice of offering food, or the lives of animals or humans, to the gods as an act of worship, propitiation or supplication. The word ‘sacrifice’ comes from the Latin sacrificium , meaning ‘to make sacred’. The ritual practice of offering food or sacrificial animal or human victims to…
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From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
In religion, the act of sanctifying or dedicating an object to a god, as a religious act of self-denial. Through it the giver seeks to enter into communion with a supernatural being. In some religions, and especially in earlier times, an animal or a human being may be killed as a sacrifice (see…
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