(O. ZOCKLERt-)
Biblioghaphw Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, iil. 313, 331 sqq., 516, 518, 570-571; M. Gritzner, Ritterund Verdienslorden alter Kulturstaaten der Welt im 19. Jahrhundert, Leipsic, 1893; Currier, Religious Orders, pp. 180 sqq., 466 sqq., 673 sqq.
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Red Sea Redemption
REDEMPTION.
Fundamental Ideas (§ 1).
Cognate Ideas (§ 2).
Redemption in the Old Testament (§ S).
In the New Testament (§ 4).
In the Early Church and the East (§ 5).
In the West till the Reformation (§ 6).
Reformation and Later Doctrine (§ 7).
Requirements of the Doctrine (§8).
The Christian religion, though not the exclusive possessor of the idea of redemption, has given to it a special definiteness and a dominant position. If the term be taken in its widest sense, i. Funda- as deliverance from dangers and ills mental in general, scarcely any religion is Ideas. wholly without it. It assumes an important position, however, only when the ills in question form part of a great system against which human power is helpless. This may be carried so far that every act of the religious life is contemplated in connection with the idea of redemption, as is the case with Buddhism. The doctrine assumes a higher form when it includes or principally considers deliverance from evil. The religion of Israel shows a progressive development from a mainly eudemonistic to a mainly ethical conception; and it is of the essence of Christianity to regard redemption as primarily a deliverance from sin, upon which freedom from other ills follows as a consequence. Where a decided ethical significance is given to the term, two separate lines of thought are followed out, each connected with a separate conception of sin. On the one hand, sin is a condition which appears in the light of religion as a painful burden; on the other, it is a personal act of the will, which brings with it the consciousness of guilt. Inasmuch as to this is attached the torturing consciousness of separation from God, the desire for its removal becomes the dominant thought. The fundamental question of religion, then, is the possibility of reconciliation, while sin as a condition stands first of the ills from which man seeks deliverance. In the most developed form of an ethical redemptive religion the thought of reconciliation is thus preeminent. Such a religion has the deepest conception of sin as an offense against the moral authority of God, and the highest personally ethical idea of salvation as a relation of peace resting upon the gracious disposition of God. This being the conception which is characteristic qf Christianity, it would be more fitting to consider Christianity a religion of reconciliation than of redemption, in which respect it rises far above Buddhism, which is a religion of redemption.
It will, therefore, be well to determine the relation of the terms " redemption " and " reconciliation " or " atonement " in Christian dogmatics. The actual use is somewhat lacking in pre- 2. Cognate cision, largely on account of the way Ideas. in which they are used in the New Testament, which employs katallage, for the decisive change in the relation of man to God, through which eirene, " peace," is substituted for echthra, " hostile " (Rom. v. 10, 11; II Cor. v. 18- 20), and deliverance from impending judgment ensues (Rom. v. 9). On the other hand, apolutrOsis I
sometimes refers to the atoning work of Christ as the ground of the forgiveness of sins (Rom. iii. 24; Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14; Heb. ix. 15), and sometimes to the final deliverance from the pressure of conditions here (Rom. vhi. 23; I Cor. i. 30; Eph. iv. 30). These passages lead to a threefold use of the word — as denoting (1) the entire saving work of Christ, the deliverance from guilt, sin, and evil; (2) the precise method which renders the forgiveness of sins possible, buying back at the price of the death of Christ; (3) the change worked in human destiny by the removal of guilt. In modern theology, despite numerous variations, the weight of usage is in favor of designating by atonement the removal of guilt (not merely of the subjective consciousness of guilt), and by redemption the breaking of the power of sin and the removal of the misery consequent upon its dominion. The former combines the ethical and religious standpoints, the latter the ethical and eudemonistic (see Atonement).
If the idea of redemption be traced through the Scriptures, the belief in Yahweh's redeeming power and purpose is met at the threshold of the national existence of Israel. This existence is 3. Redemp- established by the redemption of the tion in people from Egyptian slavery, which the Old remains the memorial of their election Testament, as the people of God, and the pledge of further deliverances to come. The Jewish idea of redemption is originally political; the object of redemption is the nation, and the foes from whom they are redeemed are national adversaries. In the same form the idea appears after the exile. The subject of Isa. xl.-lxvi. is the redeeming acts of Yahweh, past and future, and all the prophets point to his demonstrated faithfulness as a ground for hope. But with the exile the hope took a new and more spiritual shape. The national misfortunes impressed the people deeply with the conditional nature of the covenant. Israel's guilt separates the people from its God, and only repentance can open the way to new salvation. If God restores his people, it is a sign that he forgives them and takes away their guilt. This forgiveness is based upon the free love of God; it is not gained by the sacrifices of the law, but he regards the sacrifice of his servant, upon whom is laid the iniquity of all. Thus is reached, at the highest point of the Old-Testament doctrine of redemption, the idea of an atonement which is not conditioned upon legal sacrifices and not limited to minor transgressions. Political aspirations are not lacking even here; but the fundamental idea is that of a moral change in the people (Isa. lviii. 6-14). Sin is now recognized as the root of evil, and victory is promised, not mer.ely over national foes, but over man's hereditary enemy, the tempter. But a redemption with moral conditions can no longer be confined to one race; Israel's light is to go out to the heathen. And with this broadening of the conception comes also its individualizing; the individual who trusts in God is to be redeemed by God's intervention from peril and oppression, and even acquires a hope of resurrection from death.
The form assumed in the New Testament by the
Redemption Beden