In short, the conflict between mercy and sacrifice is not a logical error. Something more is going on. Specifically, there is a psychological conflict between mercy and sacrifice. What makes the tension so real and acute is that mercy and sacrifice create lived experiences that are fundamentally incompatible. Consequently, to achieve coherence we must, in a very real way, “choose” between the two impulses. I’ve made this claim repeatedly throughout these chapters. It’s now time to illuminate the machinery, the dynamic at the heart of this tension.
