Beauty and Sacrifice: Towards an Encounter with the Sacred

Abstract

This essay proposes a reflection on the relationship between beauty and sacrifice in the aesthetic philosophy of Sir Roger Scruton, showing how both notions constitute fundamental pathways for the encounter with the sacred. The general aim is to demonstrate that, in the British philosopher’s thought, the authentic experience of the beautiful requires a sacrificial disposition that transcends individual interest, generating an opening of the subject toward a transcendent order. In this sense, sacrifice is examined as an act that protects the sacred from profanation, becoming a key element both for aesthetic experience and for the religious impulse. Finally, it is argued that the connection between beauty and sacrifice not only strengthens the experience of the sacred but also opens an ethical and existential horizon capable of counteracting the superficiality and disenchantment characteristic of contemporary times. Thus, this relationship invites a profound recovery of meaning and transcendence in human experience