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Does the Atonement Imply Posted August 3, 1996.
s the Christian god cruel? Does not the fact that God required his own son's bloody, cruel death to forgive sins - sins he could have forgiven with "a wave of his hand" - prove that the Christian god is a
cruel, bloodthirsty god? I don't believe so, and here is why. The Christian position is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The doctrine of the Trinity, as inadequate as it may be in many
respects, seeks to preserve the position that what was accomplished by Christ was accomplished by God - not by some demi-god or agent of God. The sacrifice that reconciles the world *to* God is made *by* God. The
idea that Jesus must die to appease an angry father was developed by Anselm hundreds of years after the New Testament. It is what Lutheran Bishop and theologian Gustaf Aulen referred to as the *objective*, or *Latin*
view of the atonement. Many Christians (including myself) would not hold to it at all. It can be compared to the *subjective* view (championed by Abelard) that claims that atonement occurs when we see, in Christ,
what God is willing to do for our salvation (i.e., *we*, not God, are the angry ones who need to be reconciled). It can also be compared to what Aulen calls the *dramatic* view of the atonement (outlined in his book
_Christus Victor_) in which God, incarnate within Christ, does battle with, and overcomes, the evil powers which oppress humanity. While all three views can claim biblical support (because the Bible represents many
traditions which were brought together without much attempt to harmonize, and because the New Testament writers - while alluding to it - did not attempt to write a theology of the atonement), readers of the Bible should
read critically to determine which - if any - biblical interpretation of the atonement seems the most adequate understanding of how the world and God are reconciled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Return to top of page.Return to Apologetics page. Return to Return to The Inclusive Christian |
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