“Mountains of Flesh and Seas of Blood”: Reflecting Philosophically on Animal Sacrifice through Dramatic Fiction

Abstract

Despite recent moves among philosophers of religion to avoid undue abstraction by giving closer attention to religion's practical dimensions, such moves commonly remain limited to a relatively narrow range of religious traditions. What D. Z. Phillips has termed the "radical plurality" of religious and nonreligious forms of life, comprising morally troubling as well as edifying varieties, thus continues to be neglected. This article promotes an expanded approach to philosophy of religion with regard to both methodology and scope. Methodologically, it explores the potential of narrative works, and of dramatic fiction in particular, not only to constitute resources for philosophical reflection but also to actively philosophize themselves. To this end, two plays, by Rabindranath Tagore and Girish Karnad respectively, are discussed. With regard to subject matter, the article examines the complex phenomenon of animal sacrifice, and opposition to it, in South Asian contexts.

Community: In Christianity

“…He offers meat and beer to the ancestors hoping things will get better in his life. Behind this is what philosopher of religion Mikel Burley (2017) considers to be the:…”

Cows in Contested Fields

“…tti [disengagement from the world] register…" 52 The celebrated Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) portrayed a similar debate over the right versus wrong of ritual animal sacrifice in his 1917 English play, Sacrifice. SeeBurley (2019) for a summary and analysis of the play. Burley calls attention to its complexity and its occasional echoing of the Bhagavad-gita's Vedantic expressions of time and the indestructible self.…”