Christ himself is only one of the last of the long line of filial insurgents, substituting as he does, to a considerable extent, the milder rule of the Son for the harsher regime of the Judaic Father-God. In so doing he surrenders his life, thus suffering the penalty which, in one form or another, overtook his predecessors. In his case however, as in theirs, the penalty itself is over-determined. Christ dies:—in the first place, as a scapegoat, taking upon himself the guilt of his brothers and hence becoming the saviour of mankind, who are by his sacrifice freed from the consequences of their equal guilt[188]; secondly, as one who suffers the talion punishment for the original sin of the son towards the father, the guilt attaching to the death of the father being wiped out by the death of the son; thirdly, by this very sacrifice manifesting his divine nature and raising himself to a place alongside the father, thus ultimately pointing the way to a reconciliation between father and son (a reconciliation that is already hinted at in the story of Prometheus).
Not only religious beliefs, but many religious rites, ceremonies Family influences in religious rites and practices and practices may be shown to be connected with the ideas, feelings and tendencies which centre round the family. We have already seen how the rite of baptism (besides of course its significance as a purification or washing away of sin)[189] is linked on to the ideas of re-birth and initiation, with Baptism and Confirmation all that these imply (cp. above Chs. VIII and IX). Still more intimately connected with the idea of initiation, and corresponding to the initiation ceremonies that are performed at the time of adolescence in so many parts of the world, is the Christian sacrament of Confirmation; which can, appropriately enough, only be conducted by a senior member of the Church (father representative).
Of particular interest in this connection is the central rite The Communion of the Christian Church—the sacrament of the Communion[190], which has connections with the practices and beliefs of Totemism, with the widespread religious rite of sacrifice and with the relations between father and son to which we have just had occasion to refer.
Although Totemism is by many authorities supposed to Totemic and sacrificial elements in the Communion have been foreign to the culture and religions of those peoples from whom western civilisation has chiefly sprung, Robertson Smith has brought much evidence to show that many of the religious and social practices of the Semitic races bear traces Their psychological significance of totemic origin[191]. Among these not the least important are those connected with sacrifice—animal and human. In animal sacrifice the slaughtered animal was originally regarded as a kinsman[192]; it was also at the same time related to or identified with the god who protected the animal and in whose honour the animal was slain[193]; it was also in many cases regarded with mingled feelings of reverence and horror very similar to those with which the totem animal is often looked upon[194], the Semitic concept of Uncleanness corresponding closely to the Polynesian notion of Taboo. In these respects we have a striking resemblance to Totemism as practised in more primitive communities.
Now we have seen that the totem animal is, in one of its most important aspects, a father surrogate. The slaying of the totem animal, therefore, ultimately represents the murder of the father; at the same time the slaughtered animal represents a sacrifice in honour of the father and a gift to him. We have here an example of the ambivalent attitude towards the totem-father; the father, as the God to whom the sacrifice is offered, is honoured and regarded with affection; the father, as the animal, is cruelly killed. At the same time the victim would appear in another aspect to stand as a substitute for the son who, as we have seen, may be slain instead of the father, atoning by his own death for the intended or wished-for murder of the father.
As regards the eating of the sacrifice, it may perhaps in one respect be regarded as the consummation of the hostile act. Cronos eats his children in order to be sure of getting rid of them; and the swallowing of children or even of grown men by an ogre, giant, monster or witch is a not uncommon theme in folklore. The eating of the parents by the children in their turn is a natural and obvious form of revenge; and has actually been practised by some primitive people[195].
At the same time eating may be regarded as an honour or as a sign of affection; as is necessarily to some extent the case, since the totem animal represents the god and is itself as a rule sacred and inviolable except in certain circumstances. This aspect indeed obviously plays a part of great importance in the Christian sacrament in its present form[196].
The most important aspect of all however is that in virtue of which the eater is supposed to acquire or to participate in the nature, qualities or properties of that which is eaten, the worshipper thus becoming one with the God whose flesh and blood he consumes; in this way at one and the same time:—(a) himself acquiring directly some of the qualities of the divinity, (b) becoming assured of his kinship with God, the common meal being regarded as the especial symbol of this kinship (as indeed of kinship in general)[197], (c) becoming likewise assured of his kinship with his fellow worshippers, all becoming brothers by participation in the divine meal and in the underlying ideas—including of course the original father hatred and the atonement for this—which this meal implies.
Thus it appears that the food which is consumed in the Communion represents:—