Sacrifice-Service as a Telos of Life

Author(s):  
ROBERT OPATA MATE-WAYO

The concepts of sacrifice and service are subjects that have their formation in the social, historical and religious settings of the Old and New Testaments. Sacrifice and service were conceived as Telos of human survival in the Bible. Sacrifice and service were largely engaged by Paul in the book of Philippians to mean the use of fragrance in the OT sacrificial system. Paul calls the death of Christ for us an offering and a sacrifice to God a sweet-smelling savour. Paul’s view of sacrifice is similar to the understanding of the Krobo people. The concept of sacrifice and service in the socio-historical and religious life of the Krobo people of Ghana would be considered in this study to explain the biblical idea of sacrifice and service. This paper argues that sacrifice-service is as the Telos of personal and or public way of life. This paper explores how Christian sacrifice-service is as offering being “pour-out” in a person’s life draws attention to the daily suffering and service in Christ. The overall objective of this paper is to appreciate and promote sacrifice-service in the Bible as the Telos of life to influence moral life and good behaviour.

Author(s):  
ROBERT OPATA MATE-WAYO

The concepts of sacrifice and service are subjects that have their formation in the social, historical and religious settings of the Old and New Testaments. Sacrifice and service were conceived as Telos of human survival in the Bible. Sacrifice and service were largely engaged by Paul in the book of Philippians to mean the use of fragrance in the OT sacrificial system. Paul calls the death of Christ for us an offering and a sacrifice to God a sweet-smelling savour. Paul’s view of sacrifice is similar to the understanding of the Krobo people. The concept of sacrifice and service in the socio-historical and religious life of the Krobo people of Ghana would be considered in this study to explain the biblical idea of sacrifice and service. This paper argues that sacrifice-service is as the Telos of personal and or public way of life. This paper explores how Christian sacrifice-service is as offering being “pour-out” in a person’s life draws attention to the daily suffering and service in Christ. The overall objective of this paper is to appreciate and promote sacrifice-service in the Bible as the Telos of life to influence moral life and good behaviour.


1990 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 27-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Martindale

To our daughter Immena whom we give to God and to be clothed as a nun (sanctimonialis)… for the fear of God, and so that souls fighting for Christ can receive a remedy for their sins through our intermission …’. An aristocratic couple decide to give two of their children (a boy, as well as this girl) to the religious life, and their intention is recorded in a private charter. Lands which have been set aside for the economic support of Immena and her brother are listed at length; then the document concludes with the statement that the two donors, Count Rodulf and Aiga, his wife, ‘requested this concession to be made in the month of November in the tenth year of the reign of our most serene lord Louis, Emperor Augustus’ (that is, the Emperor Louis the Pious, AD 823). A girl is being given to God. Her entry into this new way of life is solemnized by a ceremony in which she will be dressed in clothes appropriate for her withdrawal from the ‘profane’ world: she will almost certainly be veiled in black or purple—although at this time that was a matter for debate in ecclesiastical legislation. The charter may also be interpreted as recording a ‘rite of passage’ which seems to signal Immena’s ‘aggregation’ into a new sacred community, and her separation from the social world of her kin.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Ahmad Zaini

This paper aims to find out the discourse of tolerance among religious people featured in the film “?” (Tanda Tanya) and Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2. Both are viewed from the level of the text, the level of social cognition, and the level of social context. The research method used is qualitative analysis with Teun van Dijk's theoretical approach, namely data analysis at the level of text, social cognition and social context. The results showed that; First, the discourse of tolerance at the text level in the film “?” (Tanda Tanya) is related to various themes, both about harmony among religious communities, cultural diversity and about tolerance. Likewise the film Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2 also tells the story of religious life in European countries. Second, the discourse of tolerance between religious communities is seen from the level of social cognition. In the film “?” (Tanda Tanya), both the screenwriter and director want to explain the reality of the diversity of religions, cultures and customs that exist in Indonesia. He wants to explain the relationship between religious people in a vulgar way. In contrast to the more refined Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2 movie. Third, the discourse of tolerance between religious communities in terms of the level of social context. The film “?” (Tanda Tanya) is motivated by the number of bombings that occurred at the house of worship three or four years before. At the level of the social context of this film as a sequel to the previous Ayat-Ayat Cinta movie. The background of making this film is because it wants to illustrate that Islam can be used as a way of life wherever we live, including life in the West though.   Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui wacana toleransi antar umat beragama yang ditampilkan dalam film “?” (Tanda Tanya) dan Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2. Keduanya ditinjau dari level teks, level kognisi sosial, dan level konteks sosial. Metode riset yang digunakan adalah analisis kualitatif dengan pendekatan teori Teun van Dijk, yaitu analisis data pada level teks, kognisi sosial dan konteks sosial. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa; pertama, wacana toleransi pada level teks dalam film “?” (Tanda Tanya) berkaitan dengan tema yang beragam, baik itu tentang kerukunan antar umat beragama, keragaman budaya maupun tentang toleransi. Demikian halnya film Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2 juga mengkisahkan tentang kehidupan umat beragama di negara Eropa. Kedua, wacana toleransi antar umat beragama ditinjau dari level kognisi sosial. Dalam film “?” (Tanda Tanya) sang penulis skenario maupun sutradara ingin memaparkan realitas tentang keragaman agama, budaya, adat istiadat yang ada di Indonesia. Ia ingin memaparkan hubungan antar umat beragama secara vulgar. Berbeda dengan film Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2 yang lebih halus. Ketiga, wacana toleransi antar umat beragama ditinjau dari level konteks sosial. Film “?” (Tanda Tanya) dilatarbelakangi banyaknya kejadian bom yang melanda rumah ibadah pada tiga atau empat tahun sebelumnya. Pada level konteks sosial film ini sebagai sekuel film Ayat-Ayat Cinta sebelumnya. Latar belakang pembuatan film ini karena ingin menggambarkan bahwa Islam dapat dijadikan pedoman hidup dimanapun kita tinggal, termasuk hidup di negeri Barat sekalipun.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 611-621
Author(s):  
Sára Horváthy

SummaryEgeria, a 4th century pious woman from the south of present-day Spain, retold, after visiting Palestine with the Bible in hand, her observations to her sisters. If the linguistic aspects of her letters are quite well-known, much less is known about its stylistic value, inappropriately called “simple”.What seems to be boringly the same again and again, is in fact a constantly renewed and perfectly mastered “variation on a theme”, just as in a well-composed piece of music. Her apparent objectivity is indeed a wish to focus on what she considers the most important, namely to tell her community, as closely to reality as possible, what she observed during her pilgrimage. However, Egeria’s latin is also a testimony of the christian lexicon in construction and of the social changes that were in progress by that time.Linguistics and stylistics work together here, the choice of a word or a grammatical formula reveals hidden information about the proper style of an author who, despite her supposed objectivity, had real personal purposes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Manu Braithwaite-Westoby

Few scholars would deny that some Old Norse myths have Christian counterparts, a phenomenon first noticed by nineteenth-century archaeologists and antiquarians in their observations of Anglo-Scandinavian stone sculpture in northern England. It is strange, therefore, that despite this long tradition, there is no systematic study on the topic. While this ambition is unfortunately outside the scope of this article, it does seek to address a number of Old Norse myths/legends and place them in conjunction with their Christian counterparts. One of the most important myths for Anglo-Scandinavian craftsmen was probably Sigurðr, who has an obvious parallel in Christ. The apocalyptic narrative in Voluspa known as Ragnarök was also a very popular subject and has a clear cognate in the apocalyptic sections of the Bible. Þórr and the Miðgarðsormr, though less appealing to artists, strongly recalls accounts of the conflict between Christ and Satan or Leviathan. This article uses a theoretical methodology called ‘figural interpretation’ to examine the Old Norse myths and explore how they reflect certain myths from the new religion. While distinctly art historical in approach, this article also invokes some Old Norse texts where relevant, which may themselves have been influenced by Christian thinking.


Author(s):  
Brian R. Doak

The purpose of this book is to tell the story of Israel’s nearest neighbors—not only discovering what the Bible has to say about them but also what we can know from archaeology, ancient inscriptions, and other sources. The Bible itself presents these neighbors in nuanced and conflicting ways; sometimes they are friends or even related to Israel at a family level, and sometimes they are enemies, spoken of as though they must die in order for Israel to live. We are left wondering how the biblical portrayal might have affected our thinking about these people as historical groups, on their own terms. How would an Aramaean have described her own religion? How would an Edomite have described conflict with Israel? This book explores both the biblical portrayal of the smaller groups surrounding Israel and what people can know about these groups through their own literature, archaeology, and other sources. By uncovering the identity of the Philistines as settlers along the coast at the same time that early Israel carved out their place in the land, for example, one can better understand the social turmoil and political maneuvering that lies just beneath the surface of the biblical narrative, and can see more clearly just how the authors of the Bible saw themselves in the face of others.


Author(s):  
Greg Anderson

To conclude the book’ s alternative account of the Athenian politeia, the chapter offers a recursive analysis of the resource flows which made this way of life possible. The result is very different from a conventional modern secular economic analysis. Instead, it treats resource transactions as the lifeblood of a cosmic ecology that united gods, land, and people in a condition of symbiotic interdependency. The most important of all these transactions were those between gods and humans, whereby the latter received secure conditions of existence in exchange for temples, sacrifices, votive treasures, and other often costly ritual offerings. The most important of the resource transactions between humans were marriages, whereby the managerial and reproductive capacities of females were transferred from one household to another, thereby perpetuating the life of the social body. Contrary to the “egalitarian” ethos which moderns believe animated “democratic Athens,” demokratia would also have been unsustainable without the innumerable contributions of resources, material and otherwise, that were made by a relatively small number of super-wealthy Athenian households. And in a polis where members typically worked only for themselves, the existence of these ecologically essential super-wealthy households would have been unsustainable without the routine exploitation of slaves.


Author(s):  
Barbara K. Gold

This chapter discusses the rise, development, and Romanization of ancient Carthage in the early Christian period after the formation of the province of Africa Proconsularis in the Augustan period; the physical topography of the city of Carthage, including the Byrsa, the Antonine Baths, and the amphitheater; and it describes the tophet or outdoor sacrificial area and whether human sacrifice was practiced among the Carthaginians. It also covers the life, influence, and African roots of Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor during Perpetua’s life and death. Also discussed are the social, religious, and intellectual conditions for pagans in Roman Carthage, who their local gods were (Tanit, Saturn, Juno Caelestis, Baal Hammon), and the connections between civic and religious life.


Author(s):  
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker

Christ’s healing of humanity consists, crucially, in forming human beings for loving relationship with himself and others. In this respect, Christ also takes the role of the beautiful beloved. Believers become pilgrims by falling in love with the beautiful Christ by the initiative of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses their eyes to see him as beautiful and enkindles desire in their hearts. By desiring and loving the beautiful Christ, the believer is conformed to him and learns to walk his path. Desiring the beautiful Christ forms a believing community shaped aesthetically and morally for a particular way of life: pilgrimage to the heavenly homeland. Formation is both earthly and eschatological, for so too is the journey and the activity of the pilgrim.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
N.I. Fisher ◽  
D.J. Trewin

Given the high level of global mobility, pandemics are likely to be more frequent, and with potentially devastating consequences for our way of life. With COVID-19, Australia is in relatively better shape than most other countries and is generally regarded as having managed the pandemic well. That said, we believe there is a critical need to start the process of learning from this pandemic to improve the quantitative information and related advice provided to policy makers. A dispassionate assessment of Australia’s health and economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic reveals some important inadequacies in the data, statistical analysis and interpretation used to guide Australia’s preparations and actions. For example, one key shortcoming has been the lack of data to obtain an early understanding of the extent of asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases or the differences across age groups, occupations or ethnic groups. Minimising the combined health, social and economic impacts of a novel virus depends critically on ongoing acquisition, integration, analysis, interpretation and presentation of a variety of data streams to inform the development, execution and monitoring of appropriate strategies. The article captures the essential quantitative components of such an approach for each of the four basic phases, from initial detection to post-pandemic. It also outlines the critical steps in each stage to enable policy makers to deal more efficiently and effectively with future such events, thus enhancing both the social and the economic welfare of its people. Although written in an Australian context, we believe most elements would apply to other countries as well.


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