RT Article
T1 From ritual to metaphor: The semantic shift in the concept of ‘victim' and medieval Christian piety
A1 Galona, Yevgen
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1686159722
AB A study of the genealogy of the concept of victim (victima), originally an object of sacrifice [ritualistic meaning], reveals how it became a metaphorical label for a harmed party [figural meaning]. This article rejects the idea presented in earlier scholarship, that the figural meaning of victim (‘a harmed party') emerged through the interpretation of Christ's death in terms of sacrifice within Christian theology. It also seeks to demonstrate that it was not the initial representation of the Passion as a sacrifice that encouraged convergence between the meanings of victim, but rather changes in the presentation of the Crucifixion in late medieval piety. From the High Middle Ages, the marginal figural meaning gradually overcame the original religious one and by the 18th century it had become a primary sense that disconnected the victim from a ritualistic context.
K1 Victim
K1 Sacrifice
K1 Suffering Christ
K1 Passion devotion
K1 Social justice
DO 10.1177/0269758017732923