“This paradoxical and tragic idea of God’s mercy, bound to the cross, is profoundly violent…however glibly we invoke the word love, the God of such atonement can appear, in a certain light, to be a monster” (James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword, pp 288)
On the same page Jewish writer Pinchas Lapide points out “that he, the ruler of the world, cannot justify anyone without a blood sacrifice, is as incomprehensible to Jews as it is contrary to the Bible”
I tend to agree with both writers.
James is accurate because requiring death to offer mercy is what good horror movies are made of.
Pinchas is right because Judaism, for the life of its existence, has never required a human sacrifice. To find this idea unbiblical is being nice.
Loosing My Religion 