Self-flagellation disciplines the flesh to deny animal mortality

Evidence

Another common approach to distancing ourselves from animals is through scourging purifications. For centuries, human beings had flogged themselves and each other as a matter of both punishment and ritual cleansing. The ancient Egyptians beat themselves while worshipping Isis. In later Christian practice, whips eventually came to be an important tool for conquering the flesh. If a human being is to reach spiritual heights, then the corrupt body needed to be dominated and punished like the animal it was. Only through pain could one find salvation. “If you live according to the flesh,” wrote Saint Paul in Romans 8:13, “you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 566

Categorization

• XREF: Chimes with ‘On Sacrifice: The Real Kind, with Corpses’ — voluntary bodily pain as a ritual technology for transcending bodily limits.