Hyam Maccoby, ‘The Sacred Executioner: Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt’

Originally published in the Jewish Quarterly, 30.3 (111) (1982/3), p. 59. THE SACRED EXECUTIONER: HUMAN SACRIFICE AND THE LEGACY OF GUILT. By Hyam Maccoby (Thames and Hudson, 1982, £10.95) Hyam Maccoby’s thesis is that many of the most potent myths which have helped to mould Western civilisation have their origin in the wide-spread practice of propitiating…