Jackson/Philosophy and the End of Sacrifice, 6. The End of Sacrifice Revisited

Besides rehearsing and developing some already familiar topics in this chapter, Stroumsa takes the opportunity to critically ponder the recent scholarly revitalization of Karl Jaspers’ concept of an Axial Age (Achsenzeit). This trend is particularly visible in the late Robert Bellah’s ambitious delineation of the early development of the world’s religious traditions in Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011).