Blood Atonement

1. A group of theories that attempt to explain how Jesus' torture-death resulted in a mechanism by which people's sins can be forgiven. Other explanations, sometimes called 'bloodless atonement' theories, account for the forgiveness of sins on the bases of Jesus' teachings and life.

2. A belief in the early Mormon church introduced by Brigham Young. Some crimes were considered so serious that the perpetrator's salvation required that they be killed and their blood mixed with the earth.