Sacrifice and The Death of Christ

The concept of Sacrifice and the Death of Christ can be explored in a custom research paper from Paper Masters. Any aspect of sacrifice in relation to Christ can be studied. We also write on any Biblical topic you need.

Your Sacrifice and the Death of Christ Research Paper should include the following:

1. Thesis Statement: it is a sentence or two that capture the focus of your research and inform your reader about the purpose of the paper and previews its main ideas
2. Table of Contents: should show a clearly defined outline that will also be visible throughout the paper
3. Introduction: strong paragraph that introduces your topic and clearly reveals what you intend to show to the reader (should include the substance of your thesis statement)
4. Section Headings: Underline or Bold, should follow Table of Contents
5. Body: its structured development should mirror your outline. This is where you prove your point while honestly interacting with opposing views and major objections
6. Transitional Sentences: clear transitions to insure a flow and sense of unity from paragraph to paragraph
7. Conclusion: it should not be a mere the restatement of your thesis. Instead, your conclusion should be a synthesis of the information presented in the body. It should bring the reader to the full level of understanding of your topic that you have yourself reached.

Sacrifice can be understood throughout the ages as a "systematically communal event". Of particular advantage to understanding how previous cultures have incorporated sacrifice into their religious tenants, the texts of the Christian Bible and various Hindu texts clearly illuminate the importance of the connection between life and death through sacrifice. Hubert and Mauss state,
Man and the god are not in direct contact. In this way sacrifice is distinguished from most of the facts grouped under the heading of blood covenant, in which by the exchange of blood a direct fusion of human and divine life is brought about.

The sacrificial cycle most often seen in the Bible is that of the innocent victim sacrificed, and through the violent act of sacrifice, illustrates the freedom that love makes possible.

Throughout history, there have been only a small number of religious belief systems in which death is figured as a positive event. In Christian doctrine, believers are taught not to fear death, and even to welcome it, as it represents the necessary passage to eternity. However, this conviction is unusual in broader context of history, wherein most belief systems viewed sacrificial death as the punitive act of vengeful, bloodthirsty deities. In addition, many ancient cultures did not view the afterlife as an idyllic place. For example, although Hebrews and Mesopotamians believed in an afterlife, it was not necessarily a place of happiness for the entering spirit.

In Eastern religions such as Hinduism, the physical body is viewed as unimportant in the continuation of the spirit, as the spirit was in existence before the physical body and will continue in eternity beyond the disintegration of the physical body. Indeed, within the belief systems of Hinduism, the spirit's encapsulation within a physical body is viewed as negative, a punishment for some past misdeed or moral transgression. The ultimate objective of these religions is a transcendent existence outside of the physical realm. As such, the ancient death rituals in these cultures were not as focused upon the preservation of the physical body.

According to the strictly monistic schools of Hindu thought, happiness is not conceived as an individual's enjoyment of an eternal life lived in some far off place called heaven. Rather, happiness is seen as the escape from individuality altogether, the sacrifice of the "little self" through submergence into the greater one. The problem that man faces, as an individual, is not to how to go on living as an individual, but rather, how to manage to sacrifice individuality by merging with the All.

This notion of the need to abandon the self in order to escape samsara seems to imply that the individual self is some kind of an aberration, a thing that-so long as it exists apart from the greater atman or over-soul-is doomed to eternal ignorance and suffering. This notion is radical in that it identifies the fact of individual existence with the fact of suffering. Only when the individual can summon up the will to sacrifice oneself, one will be able to escape from sorrow. This sacrifice is not to be seen in purely negative terms. By surrendering, Mahony notes, one fulfills. The sacrifice of self, the falling of the rain drop into the sea, is a joyous return to the "blissful Absolute." Hindu schools of thought have different points of view on the notion of the relationship between the individual soul and the greater soul-of-all. The less monistic schools, such as the theistic Vedanta school, do posit individual survival after release from samsara and their idea that this form of bliss would constitute being in the presence of the divinity is something very close to what Christians believe. But note that even the theists accept the notion of samsara and agree that there is a need for escape from it. All of the classical Hindu schools see little value in living in the world; this view of the world is not entirely foreign to the beliefs held by some Christians. St. Augustine's concept of the two cities, the City of God and the City of Man, with its emphasis on the need for human beings to reject the material world and seek after the spiritual, surely resembles the views of many Hindu schools.

The escape from the endless cycle of death and rebirth in the world is liberation, moksha. Heinrich Zimmer uses a metaphor to describe samsara that explains the need for the release that is moksha. A man who is carrying a load of wood on his head that has caught on fire would naturally seek out a pond to quench it in; so too would a person who, stuck in the cycle of samsara, and rightly perceiving what that means, seek out a guru who would teach him how to achieve moksha and sacrifice himself.

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A word about sources for Sacrifice and the Death of Christ Research Paper:
As a rule, the internet is not an acceptable resource for research papers (there are very few exceptions). Instead, we recommend that you primarily use the following type of sources*

• Scholarly journal articles: These are useful for their survey of the critical issues related to the subject and their bibliography.
• Primary sources: These must take precedence over secondary sources. A primary source is firsthand account or direct evidence concerning a subject matter under examination while secondary source present an assessment or a interpretation of primary sources.
• Scholarly works: These include books, monographs, serial, manuscripts written by experts in the field as opposed to dubious works.