Erin Reno- Phen. of Prayer #2

Sacrifice and the Alleviation of Guilt
More in The Phenomenology of Prayer and the relationship between humans and the spiritual Other,  another topic mentioned was sacrifice.  In my understanding of the act of sacrifice I think of one putting the good of the group over their own, and with a familial background in Christianity, my first thought is of Christ.  The act of sacrificing another in order to alleviate my own sin did not even cross my mind until textually mentioned, but that’s exactly what the book is getting at.  The act of sacrificial murder, often portrayed through dramatized cinema, was something (to my acknowledged limited understanding) by ways of paying tribute to the God/s, but as explained in the book, what could we have to offer God that He needs from us?  Instead this sacrifice in “natural religion” is for the purpose and benefit of the human, not the divine.  But Christ, the textbook example of sacrifice in Abrahamic religions does not alleviate guilt, but instead makes our own personal sin known to us. 

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