Self-flagellation
whipping oneself as part of a religious ritual.
Self-flagellation is the disciplinary and devotional practice of flogging oneself with whips or other instruments that inflict pain. In Christianity, self-flagellation is practiced in the context of the doctrine of the mortification of the flesh and is seen as a spiritual discipline. It is often used as a form of penance and is intended to allow the flagellant to share in the sufferings of Jesus, bringing their focus to God.
The main religions that practice self-flagellation include some branches of Christianity and Islam. The ritual has also been practiced among members of several Egyptian and Greco-Roman cults.
Christianity
Historically, Christians have engaged in various forms of mortification of the flesh, ranging from self-denial, wearing hairshirts and chains, fasting, and self-flagellation (often using a type of whip called a discipline). Some Christians use excerpts from the Bible to justify this ritual. For example, some interpreters claim that Paul the Apostle's statement, "I chastise my body" (1 Corinthians 9:27), refers to self-inflicted bodily scourging. Prominent Christians who have practiced self-flagellation include Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, and Congregationalist writer Sarah Osborn, who practiced self-flagellation in order "to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God". It became "quite common" for members of the Tractarian movement within the Anglican Communion to practice self-flagellation using a discipline.
The public source identifies “Self-flagellation” as whipping oneself as part of a religious ritual. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Self-flagellation, whipping and oneself.
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This entry incorporates text from “Self-flagellation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.