The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (413 page)

(1861–1949).
French
Roman Catholic
philosopher. His
Letter on Apologetics
(1896; Eng. tr. 1964) and
History and Dogma
(1904; Eng. tr. 1964) concern issues raised by the
Modernist
crisis, though their importance transcends this context.

 
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Blood
.

Commonly held in religions to be the sign and condition of life, and therefore a fundamental constituent of
sacrifices
. Because of its importance in relation to God's gift of life, the Jewish
Bible
contains an absolute prohibition against swallowing the blood of an animal (see Leviticus 3. 17; Deuteronomy 12. 15–16). The justification for this is the belief that the blood contained life (Leviticus 17. 11). The prohibition leads directly to laws of
kashrut
(see
DIETARY LAWS
) and
she
itah
(the method for slaughtering animals). Eating meat was itself a concession on the part of God after the
Flood
.
In Christianity, the shedding of the blood of
Christ
came to be understood as the continuation and culmination of the
Temple
sacrifices, achieving completely that which they had partially anticipated. From this developed devotion to the Precious Blood (from the
Vulgate
tr. of 1 Peter 1. 19), decreed as a feast day for the whole Church by Pius IX in 1859, though transferred to a votive mass after
Vatican II
.

 
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Bloodguilt
.

In Judaism the liability for punishment of those who have shed blood. The blood-avenger is known as
goel ha-dam
(see e.g. Judges 8. 18–21, 2 Samuel 3. 27, 13. 28 ff.). If someone has killed accidentally, he must flee to a
city of refuge
.

 
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Blood-libel
.

The accusation that
Jews
murder non-Jews to obtain
blood
for
Passover
rituals. This accusation was repeated in many places in the Middle Ages and was the cause of anti-Jewish riots and massacres. It was a regular motif in
anti-Semitic
propaganda until the Second World War.

 
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Blood of the martyrs, seed of the Church
(Christian evaluation of martyrdom)
:

see
PERSECUTION
;
TERTULLIAN
.

 
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Blue Cliff Record
(Chinese Ch'an verses)
:

see
HSÜEH-TOU CH'UNG-HSIEN
.

 
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