The twofold Ambivalence of Sacrifice and the Christian Face of God

Abstract

Sacrifice, fundamental religious act, is marked by a profound ambivalence, being able to assume opposite meanings: in the name of God one can save or destroy. Christ’s sacrifice undoes the ambivalence and turns the idea of a “sacrificing” God on its head, committed that is to the affirmation of self also against man. This article concentrates on the theme of the ambivalence of sacrifice, specifically of its double ambivalence (within and outside of Christianity): the ambivalence of the sacred (which the sacrifice of Christ can resolve) and the ambivalence which can quietly return also in the Christian attempts to go beyond the sacrificial image of God.