SACRIFICE

‘the offering or destruction of anything as a religious rite’ is a po ible definition, but the idea, though in a measure familiar to every one, is a difficult one to focus, for the term is used ethically besides. Ritual s. is very important in nearly all religions,— | Buddhism is an important exception | but its original significa nce is disputed. | It may have started in more than one way, and a given act of rituals. may have different aspects. Thus (i)as isa gift to the deity; (2) Totemism, a feature | of early religion and society, the importance of which was first brought out by Robert so n Smith, explains s. A Ss. was a sacred meal shared by a god and | his worshippers, or a rite in which the worshippers fed on their god himself, of an expiatory s. of the totem animal. Human s., however, does not |seem so ancient, though it’ has been practiced at various times all over the | world. Many religions have develo the | Jewish, in which various forms, sin offering, peace-off ering, etc., were distinguished. Hindu s. has likewise a | complica ted ritual. Christianity has no place for animal S., though it has stil] ee in the Armenian Church. The Epistle to the Hebrews re i i Dee as. in which Christ participates pries as t and victim. That the Eucharist is as. is denied by extreme Prote stants, but is admit ted by Anglo-Catholics the and Eastern Churches,