False Atonements

In False Atonements, R.J. Rushdoony explores the ancient and modern human obsession with blood sacrifice—and how rejecting Christ’s atonement inevitably leads people to invent their own. From the pagan rituals of Moloch worship and the myths of Iphigenia, to the modern sacrificial altars of abortion clinics and political violence, Rushdoony argues that guilt demands an outlet. If it is not laid at the foot of the Cross, it will surface elsewhere—through sadism, masochism, or the cultural glorification of death. Only through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, he insists, can men find true release from guilt and the basis for a just and enduring civilization.