Christianity — based not only on the crucifixion but also on the incarnation — is a complex social imaginary whose power depends on the combined control and celebration of the maternal body. Reading blood — conceptual or otherwise — through death without also reading it through birth has profound political consequences that reassert and even revitalize the violent innocence of Christianity that Anidjar seeks to critique.
For Blood: The Element of Christianity. A Forum on Gil Anidjar’s Blood: A Critique of Christianity, edited by Nina Caputo, I wrote a response entitled ‘Fertile Blood’; find it here.