RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Atonement
mitted to hold the field without controversy Many " theories of the atonement " have been constructed, ea,ch throwing into emphasis a fragment of the truth, to the neglect or denial of the complementary elements, including ordinarily the central matter of the expiation of guilt itself (cf. T. J. Crawford, The Doctrine of Holy Scripture Respecting the Atonement, Edinburgh, 1888, pp. 395- 401 • A. B. Bruce, The Humiliation of Christ, Edinburgh, 1881, lecture 7; A. A. Hodge, The Atonement, Philadelphia, 1867, pp. 17 sqq.). Each main form of these theories, in some method of statement or other, has at one time or another seemed on the point of becoming the common doctrine of the Churches. In the patristic age men spoke with such predilection of the work of Christ as issuing in our deliverance from the power of Satan that the false impression is very readily obtained from a cursory survey of the teaching of the Fathers that they predominantly conceived it as directed to that sole end. The so-called " mystical " view, which had representatives among the Greek Fathers and has always had advo- 3. Various cates in the Church, appeared about Theories, the middle of the last century almost ready to become dominant in at least Continental Protestantism through the immense influence of Schleiermacher. The " rectoral or governmental theory," invented by Grotius early in the seventeenth century in the effort to save something from the assault of the Socinians, has ever since provided a half-way house for those who, while touched by the chilling breath of rationalism, have yet not been ready to surrender every semblance of an " objective atonement," and has therefore come very prominently forward in every era of decaying faith. The "moral influence " theory, which in the person of perhaps the acutest of all the scholastic reasoners, Peter Abelard, confronted the doctrine of " satisfaction " at its formulation, in its vigorous promulgation by the Socinians and again by the lower class of rationalists obtained the widest currency; and again in our own day, its enthusiastic advocates, by perhaps a not unnatural illusion, are tempted to claim for it the final victory (so, e.g., G. B. Stevens, The Christian Doctrine of Salvation, New York, 1905; but cf. per contra, of the same school, T. V. Tymms, The Christian Idea of Atonement, London, 1904, p. 8). But no one of these theories, however attractively they may be presented, or however wide an acceptance each may frpm time to time have found in academic circles, has ever been able to supplant the doctrine of " satisfaction " either in the formal creeds of the Churches, or in the hearts of simple believers. Despite the fluidity of much recent thinkmg on the subject, the doctrine of " satisfaction " remains to-day the established doctrine of the Churches as to the nature of Christ's work of redemption, and is apparently immovably entrenched in the hearts of the Christian body (cf. J. B. Remensnyder, The Atonement and Modern Thought, Philadelphia, 1905, p. xvi).
II. The Five Chief Theories of the Atonement: A survey of the various theories of the Atonement which have been broached, may be made from
many points of view (cf. especially the survey in T. G. Crawford, ut sup., pp. 385-401; Bruce, ut sup., lecture 7; and for recent German views, F. A. B. Nitzsch, Lehrbuch der evangelischen Dogmatik, Freiburg, 1892, §§ 43-46; O. Bensow, Die Lehre von der Versohnung, Gtitersloh, 1904, pp. 7-156; G. A. F. Ecklin, Erlosung und Versohnung, Basel, 1903, part 4). Perhaps as good a method as any other is to arrange them according to the conception each entertains of the person or persons on whom the work of Christ terminates. When so arranged they fall naturally into five classes which may be enumerated here in the ascending order.
1. Theories which conceive the work of Christ as terminating upon Satan, so affecting him as to secure the release of the souls held in bondage by him. These theories, which have been described as emphasizing the " triumphantorial " aspect of Christ's work (Ecklin, ut sup., pp. 113 sqq.) had very considerable vogue in the patristic age (e.g.,
Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Clement of Alex-
1. The " Tri- andria, Origen, Basil, the two Greg-
umphan- ories, Cyril of Alexandria, down to and
torial including John of Damascus and
Theory." Nicholas of Methone ; Hilary, Rufinus,
Jerome, Augustine, Leo the Great, and even so late as Bernard). They passed out of view only gradually as the doctrine of " satisfaction " became more widely known. Not only does the thought of a Bernard still run in this channel, but even Luther utilized the conception. The idea runs through many forms, — speaking in some of them of buying off, in some of overcoming, in some even of outwitting (so, e.g., Origen) the devil. But it would be unfair to suppose that such theories represent in any of their forms the whole thought as to the work of Christ of those who made use of them, or were considered by them a scientific statement of the work of Christ. They rather embody only their author's profound sense of the bondage in which men are held to sin and death, and vividly set forth the rescue they conceive Christ has wrought for us in overcoming him who has the power of death.
2. Theories which conceive the work of Christ as terminating physically on man, so affecting him as to bring him by an interior and hidden working upon him into participation with the one life of Christ; the so-called "mystical theories." The fundamental characteristic of these theories is their discovery of the saving fact not in anything which Christ taught or did, but in what he was. It is upon the Incarnation, rather than upon Christ's teaching or his work that they throw stress, attributing the saving power of Christ not to what he does for us but to what he does in us. Tendencies to this type of theory are already traceable in the
Platonizing Fathers; and with the en-
2. "Mystical trance of the more developed Neo-
Theories" platonism into the stream of Chris-
and their tian thinking, through the writings of
Advocates, the Pseudo-Dionysius naturalized in the
West by Johannes Scotus Erigena, a
constant tradition of mystical teaching began which
never died out. In the Reformation age this type
Atonement