And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with these words." (Exodus 24:8)

The symbol of blood is both an attraction and a revulsion to Christian piety. For some, it is a rich expression of religious feeling. The hymnwriter says: "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains." (W. Cowper, 1779)

However, others feel that the Christian religion should rise above such primal imagery. Christianity, they say, is a mature, spiritual religion. It is regressive to mix in such materialistic imagery as blood. This may even translate into feelings of ambivalence about taking Holy Communion, because of its r…