Radical Sacrifice

“Eagleton is a fascinating writer who offers his readers an interesting cultural-philosophical look at sacrificial death. Though today sacrifice has become troubled by its confusion with suicide bombers, who are often presented in terms of sacrifice, Eagleton’s review shows how Christ’s willing sacrifice and Christians corresponding martyrdom are different.”—Jan Martijn Abrahamse, Journal of Reformed Theology

"[His] generous spirit towards the past, along with the ease with which Eagleton wears his learning, makes him a joy to read."—Scott Beauchamp, Claremont Review of Books

"Radical Sacrifice makes a persuasive case that a life given in the defense of those who are rejected, or sacrificed, is a life deeply lived."—Jose Dueno, America 

"Be not afraid: Eagleton’s spritely offbeat style and sure eye for the telling quotation sustains his argument."—George Dennis O'Brien, Christian Century 

"Radical Sacrifice is a brief that explicates not just the revolutionary significance of martyrdom, but also of art, nationalism, apocalypse, creation, and death."—Ed Simon, The Revealer

"There are very few thinkers today who have the fluency to write about political theory and religious thought as seamlessly as Eagleton has managed to do."—Daniel Bezalel Richardsen, Literary Review of Canada

"One is perhaps best recommended to read Radical Sacrifice as one would read the Book of Proverbs – mining it for the gold that is plentiful in both Proverbs and Radical Sacrifice."—Catholic Books Review

"Sacrifice – giving something up – does not rate highly in modern capitalist societies based on the idea of fulfillment through consumption. As Terry Eagleton says, however, there is much more to sacrifice than priests, temples and burnt offerings. Our understanding of sacrifice, clearly, has evolved radically over the millennia, but the impulse to renounce and surrender oneself remain integral to the human experience. Eagleton draws on all those experiences, from the Old and New Testaments to Karl Marx via Harry Potter, to powerfully restate the case for an idea as old as humankind itself."—Marcus Tanner, journalist, editor and author of Croatia and Albania's Mountain Queen

"In this book, Terry Eagleton offers a fascinating interpretation of sacrifice as an affirmation of personal and social transformation. Radical Sacrifice is a salutary reminder of the abiding fecundity of Marxist approaches to the Christian tradition. Even those who may not accept Eagleton’s view of sacrifice will inevitably enjoy the intellectual tour de force he presents and benefit from his stimulating engagement with a huge variety of texts and thinkers."—Johannes Zachhuber, co-editor of Sacrifice and Modern Thought

"In a darkening hour, Terry Eagleton remains bravely committed to the depths of our cultural inheritance. His non-reductive treatment of religious sacrifice refuses at once a progressivist compromise with dark forces, deployed to discipline the individual, and the postmodern invocation of their marginally disturbing and subvsersive character. Instead, it advocates the stand of the martyr and revolutionary against all darkness, which inevitably invites death at its hands, but witnesses to an utterly transformed future where at last light prevails. It is a magisterial treatment, which manages to be both balanced and uncompromising."—John Milbank, author of Beyond Secular Order and The Monstrosity of Christ