Sacred and secular dimensions of self-sacrifice: an intercultural perspective

Abstract

The article examines self-sacrifice as a cultural-philosophical category that functions as a mechanism of social integration. It explores how, across different cultural contexts, self-sacrifice assumes either sacred or secular forms while retaining its integrative role for the community. The aim is a comparative analysis of the Ukrainian trajectory of sacralizing heroic death and the Japanese trajectory of desacralizing war-related self-sacrifice after 1945, which redirected the logic of self-sacrifice into secular practices of corporate loyalty. Methodologically, the study combines philosophical analysis with heuristic semi-structured interviews conducted with experts from religious and academic fields in both countries. Although not statistically representative, these interviews reveal cultural meanings and social mechanisms that would remain hidden if approached only through theory in isolation. The findings demonstrate that self-sacrifice does not disappear even when socio-cultural conditions change. In Ukraine, especially since 2014 and the full-scale invasion of 2022, it has been actualized through heroic death and communal solidarity, resonating with the notion of “sacred values.” In Japan, by contrast, the postwar pacifist paradigm desacralized military self-sacrifice, yet its cultural grammar persisted in secular registers, most visibly embodied in the figure of the sararīman, with corporate loyalty, initiation rituals, and even karōshi (death from overwork) serving as new forms of sacrifice. This comparative perspective demonstrates that self-sacrifice, whether framed in sacred or secular terms, consistently operates as a cultural resource for maintaining communal continuity. Overall, the article concludes that self-sacrifice, despite its divergent historical manifestations, remains a universal cultural category capable of transformation, of endowing death with meaning, and of orienting communities in the face of existential and social challenges.