Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Christus Victor
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 4:40 pm
In a recent thread Jlay suggested that it might be worthwhile to have a discussion about Penal Substitutionary Atonement as opposed to Christus Victor and to that end I'm starting this thread for any who want to take a look at that or for that matter, any of the other views of the atonement that have been prevelent within the church over the ages.
This is something I've spent a little time over the years taking a look at and considering. If any are interested and want to read a book that I think is a good introduction in book or Kindle form I recomment "A Community Called Atonement" by Scott McKnight. He goes through all of the major views of the atonement and discusses their history, their biblical moorings and also their connections to the culture, philosophy and thinking of the times in which they either arose or increased in importance.
I have a review here on Amazon for any who are interested: http://amzn.to/zALHFK
Atonement views are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In a sense the atonement is a huge theme in Scripture and some of these different views are in effect metaphors that help us to understand what the atonement is like when viewed from a particular perspective.
Penal Substitutionary Atonement is the view with which most Protestants and Evangelicals are familiar. Other may want to redefine or clarify but for the purposes of kicking this off for any interested here's the definitions of each from Wikipedia.
Penal substitution (sometimes, esp. in older writings, called forensic theory) is a theory of the atonement within Christian theology, developed with the Reformed tradition. It argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished (penalised) in the place of sinners (substitution), thus satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins. It is thus a specific understanding of substitutionary atonement, where the substitutionary nature of Jesus' death is understood in the sense of a substitutionary punishment.
The term Christus Victor refers to a Christian understanding of the atonement which views Christ's death as the means by which the powers of evil, which held humankind under their dominion, were defeated. It is a model of the atonement that is dated to the Church Fathers, and it, or the related ransom theory, was the dominant theory of the atonement for a thousand years, until it was removed in the West by the eleventh-century Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, and replaced with his "satisfaction" model.
So if any want to make comments or ask questions, then please go ahead.
This is something I've spent a little time over the years taking a look at and considering. If any are interested and want to read a book that I think is a good introduction in book or Kindle form I recomment "A Community Called Atonement" by Scott McKnight. He goes through all of the major views of the atonement and discusses their history, their biblical moorings and also their connections to the culture, philosophy and thinking of the times in which they either arose or increased in importance.
I have a review here on Amazon for any who are interested: http://amzn.to/zALHFK
Atonement views are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In a sense the atonement is a huge theme in Scripture and some of these different views are in effect metaphors that help us to understand what the atonement is like when viewed from a particular perspective.
Penal Substitutionary Atonement is the view with which most Protestants and Evangelicals are familiar. Other may want to redefine or clarify but for the purposes of kicking this off for any interested here's the definitions of each from Wikipedia.
Penal substitution (sometimes, esp. in older writings, called forensic theory) is a theory of the atonement within Christian theology, developed with the Reformed tradition. It argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished (penalised) in the place of sinners (substitution), thus satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins. It is thus a specific understanding of substitutionary atonement, where the substitutionary nature of Jesus' death is understood in the sense of a substitutionary punishment.
The term Christus Victor refers to a Christian understanding of the atonement which views Christ's death as the means by which the powers of evil, which held humankind under their dominion, were defeated. It is a model of the atonement that is dated to the Church Fathers, and it, or the related ransom theory, was the dominant theory of the atonement for a thousand years, until it was removed in the West by the eleventh-century Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, and replaced with his "satisfaction" model.
So if any want to make comments or ask questions, then please go ahead.