Animal Sacrifice and the Death Penalty

“Writing in the wake of an influential group of scholars concerned with sacrifice—Walter Burkert, René Girard, Jean-Pierre Vernant, and Marcel Detienne—Ghisalberti revisits some of our founding narratives in order to shine light on fundamental assumptions that have remained, conveniently, unquestioned to our day. Whether it is the creation story of Genesis, Cain, Prometheus, or the death of Socrates, Ghisalberti’s masterly reframing of these stories unearths dynamics that continue to impact us today.”


—John Caruana, Ryerson University





“An essential book that presents new alternatives to common interpretations of Cain and Abel, Jesus and the resurrection, humans and animals, crime and punishment, and other historical, philosophical, and theological concepts. Ghisalberti offers a fresh, eye-opening, truly original reading of biblical texts and related literature. The careful, innovative, often surprising juxtaposition of Hebrew and Greek sources is enhanced by a remarkably effective process of argumentation and an admirable moral vision.”


—Gilad Elbom, Oregon State University





“In this book, Ghisalberti provides us with a new lens through which we can look at familiar texts in an unfamiliar way. And it is a lens well worth looking through, as biblical concepts of death, sacrifice, blood, and ritual are all reexamined and reframed.”


—Nathan Radke, coauthor of Ethical Perspectives