Session 2: Atonement

Atonement

• Early followers of Jesus would likely have heard about reconciliation, Jewish sacrificial systems, marketplace transactions, or criminal law.
• The 11th-century monk Anslem of Canterbury's theology, or a 3rd-century Christian in Alexandria would have likely expounded different theories.
• Different metaphors and ideas were prominent in different historical periods.
• The 1st century may have relied on simple metaphors but other periods used complex theories.
• Theological minds often interpreted simple metaphors in detail.

Christus Victor

• Different stories and theories emerged in different times and places.
• Theories resonated with the social settings of the times.
• The early church in the west had a dominant atonement model, Christus Victor. This model presents Jesus's victory over evil powers.
• Humanity was considered enslaved by evil powers, and Jesus's work was to set humanity free from those powers.

Moral Influence or Exemplary (Abelard)

• Abelard disagreed with Anslem's atonement model.
• Abelard suggests that Jesus's sacrifice was not instrumental in obtaining forgiveness.
• Abelard's model focuses on the transformative power of Jesus's love and life, rather than penal substitution.
• He focuses on the idea that Jesus's teachings and example transformed humanity's hearts.
• Abelard emphasizes that the transformative effect of Jesus was crucial for understanding atonement.

Penal Substitution

• The Reformation's most influential atonement model.
• Emphasis on the law and human society's estrangement from God.
• Atonement as satisfying God’s law by Jesus's substitutionary death.
• Christ's sacrifice was seen as a payment to satisfy God’s wrath.
• A different story of atonement told by the Reformers, in contrast to Anselm.

Divinely Sanctioned Violence

• This view of atonement highlights divine retribution following sin.
• The death of Jesus as the manifestation of God's wrath and punishment for sin.
• The cross as a paradigm of parental punishment or violence by God.
• Objections to this model include the injustice of punishing or killing an innocent person instead of the guilty party
• Historical interpretations of violence in the scriptures.