Invece del sacrificio: lo scandalo della grazia

(In Place of Sacrifice: The Scandal of Grace)

Abstract

This essay intends to develop the essential relation between grace and mercy in opposition to sacrificial logics. Whereas philosophy acknowledges its specific vocation to critical inquiry in particular regarding the meaning of the human experience of the gift as a form of relationship, mercy has instead been overshadowed not only in Western thought, but also in the traditional hermeneutics of the evangelic texts. The kernel of this theological removal is the unconscious repudiation of the filial dignity of the human being precisely at the same time as the Gospel shows that everyone is the child of God, the Father of Jesus. Instead of recognizing themselves as God’s children, human beings either imagine being completely subordinate subjects or they break their relation with God and claim full autonomy. Discovering grace, mercy, and the dignity of the child in the relationship with the Good as origin of life is key to understanding the human condition. In particular, the spiritual and heuristic strength of the logics of mercy can generate a good and new orientation in all cultures. Such a perspective represents an important contribute to the process of intercultural convergence toward a humanized global society.