Professor Yael Feldman Glory and Agony sku-14558861

Glory and Agony by Professor Yael Feldman, sku-14558861, is a hardcover Religion & Religious Studies Books title. It traces changing attitudes toward national sacrifice in Hebrew culture over the last century, beginning with Zionism's preoccupation with the near-sacrifice of Isaac.

Drawing on literature, art, psychology, philosophy, and politics alongside twentieth-century thought on sacrifice, violence, and martyrdom, the study examines the origins and gender of national sacrifice. It also considers more than two millennia of retellings involving Isaac, Ishmael, Jephthah's daughter, Iphigenia, and Jesus, and traces national sacrifice from religious martyrdom to Western secularism in Israel and elsewhere.