The figure of mary comes to the fore in emerging christian traditions in the context of a sacrificial discourse and a ramifying set of liturgical practices, literary typologies and figural relationships that join Christian self-understanding with the patriarchal narratives and temple cult of ancient Israel. Anthropologically speaking, as has been said, sacrifice in this new context not only recalls the Biblical discourse of sacrifice in the past but serves many of the same functions. It establishes gender distinctions, rectifies the otherness imported into the patriline by women, establishes a community, and marks the transmission of a distinct cultural and religious patrimony from spiritual “father” to spiritual “son.” Theologically speaking, it mediates the passions unleashed by human contact with the divine seen as a desiring and fathering God.

Sacrifice continues in this new Christian order, and it is not just the diffuse, celebratory sacrifice of feasting and celebration but the strong, agonistic sacrifice of suffering, ordeal, and expiation. At its heart is the eucharistic rite, variously known across Christian denominations as the “sacrifice of the mass” or the “Last Supper.”