ABSTRACT
Sacrifice is also a central theme in Judaism’s most famous off-shoot, Christianity. The New Testament contains a sacrificial paradox, however, for its most holy figure largely eschews the role of priest; instead he plays the role of the sacrificed lamb. Self-sacrifice–martyrdom –may be found in several ancient traditions. Moving away from the subject of motivation, and returning to the displacement of violence and the role that religion plays in it, according to both S. Freud and Rene Girard, symbolic sacrifice is the primary mechanism for displacing violence. The rhetoric of warfare is as prominent in modern religious vocabulary as is the language of sacrifice, and virtually all cultural traditions are filled with martial metaphors. Cosmic warfare is more than just a metaphor; it is the grand context in which all of life’s struggles, including political ones, make sense. Rituals of sacrifice fit into this general pattern of religious rhetoric: they are enactments of cosmic war.
