Abstract
What belongs to reality and what to the virtual in sacrifices considered as rituals, which imply a gift, immolation and communion, based on beliefs? If religion has no mechanism for the production of non-violence through a violent act, up to what point can we assume that the sacred is founded on some sort of initial or historical violence? Soldiers, kamikaze martyrs, actors in the humanitarian aid effort—all consider themselves at times to be at the heart of a sacrificial action. This leads us to the question: what, in truth, is the meaning of the supreme sacrifice? The arguments presented here do not intend to begin a debate concerning various theories of sacrifice, but rather to reflect on actual problematics, to identify what is primary and what secondary in the sacrificial act, to reveal the magical and mythical imagination at work in religious actions, to show that violence is a snare in attempts to explain sacrifice, and to moderate some of the consequences of the theses by Girard and Lempert concerning foundational violence, sublimated violence, and political violence.