Atonement

Last updated April 24, 2024

Atonement, atoning, or making amends is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do bad for others, or some other expression of feelings of hate. Atonement "is closely associated to forgiveness, reconciliation, sorrow, remorse, repentance, reparation, and guilt".^[1] It can be seen as a necessary step on a path to redemption.^[2]Expiation is the related concept of removing guilt, particularly the undoing of sin or other transgressions in religious contexts.

Names

Atonement and atoning both derive from the verb atone, from the Middle English attone or atoon (meaning "agreed" or "at one").^[3] Expiation is likewise related to the verb expiate, from Latin expio meaning "to atone" or "to purge by sacrifice", from ex- ("out") and pio ("to purify", "to make pious").

In law and society

In the legal systems, the concept of atonement plays an important role with respect to criminal justice, where it is considered one of the primary goals of criminal rehabilitation.^[4]

In religion and behavior

In religion, atonement is "a spiritual concept which has been studied since time immemorial in Biblical and Kabbalistic texts",^[1] while "[s]tories of atonement are ubiquitous in religious discourse and the language of atonement fundamentally reveals a redemptive turn".^[5]

Concepts in religion include:

Atonement in Judaism - the process of causing a transgression to be forgiven or pardoned. In Rabbinic Judaism, people achieve atonement through repentance, sometimes followed by some combination of confession, restitution, tribulations (unpleasant life experiences), the experience of dying, or other factors.
- Another aspect of atonement is the occurrence of Yom Kippur (the day itself, as distinct from the Temple service performed on it), also known as "the Day of Atonement", which is a biblical/Jewish observance.
Atonement in Christianity, in western Christian theology, describes beliefs that human beings can be reconciled to God through Christ's sacrificial suffering and death.^[6] Atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general and original sin in particular through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus,^[7]^[8] Throughout the centuries, Christians have used different metaphors and given differing explanations of atonement to express how atonement might work. Churches and denominations may vary in which metaphor or explanation they consider most accurately fits into their theological perspective; however all Christians emphasize that Jesus is the Saviour of the world and through his death the sins of humanity have been forgiven,^[9] enabling the reconciliation between God and his creation. Within Christianity there are, historically, three^[10] or four^[11] main theories for how such atonement might work:
- Ransom theory/Christus Victor (which are different, but generally considered together as Patristic or "classical", to use Gustaf Aulén's nomenclature, theories, it being argued that these were the traditional understandings of the early Church Fathers);
- Satisfaction theory developed by Anselm of Canterbury (called by Aulén the "scholastic" view);
- Moral influence theory, a concept that had been developed by the time of Enlightenment, which Aulén called the "subjective" or "humanistic" view and considered to have been anticipated—as a critique of the satisfaction view—by Peter Abelard.
- Other theories include recapitulation theory, the "shared atonement" theory^[12] and scapegoat theory.
- Additional views include the governmental view, penal substitution view, and substitutionary atonement
The Nation of Islam celebrates a Day of Atonement which the Nation established during the Million Man March in Washington, DC on October 16, 1995. It is described^{[ by whom? ]} as a day on which American black men would refrain from crime, drug addiction, and family abuse.

Concepts of atonement also exist in other religious views. For example, in Native American and Mestizo cultures of the Americas, "[s]ince sin and guilt are among the principal causes of illness and maladjustment... confession, atonement, and absolution are frequent rituals used in treatment. In some cases, atonement is accomplished through prayer or penance; in others, it may involve cleansing the body, accomplished by brushing the body with branches of rosemary or by sprinkling it with holy water".^[13]

Concepts of universal atonement can transcend all religions, as in unlimited atonement, the doctrine that the atonement is unlimited in extent, and universal reconciliation, the doctrine that all will eventually come to salvation.

Twelve-step programs include an atonement or "making amends" phase (steps 8 and 9).

Related Research Articles

In Christianity, Christology, translated from Greek as 'the study of Christ', is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Different denominations have different opinions on questions such as whether Jesus was human, divine, or both, and as a messiah what his role would be in the freeing of the Jewish people from foreign rulers or in the prophesied Kingdom of God, and in the salvation from what would otherwise be the consequences of sin.

Salvation is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, salvation generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences. The academic study of salvation is called soteriology.

Propitiation is the act of appeasing or making well-disposed a deity, thus incurring divine favor or avoiding divine retribution. It is related to the idea of atonement and sometime mistakenly conflated with expiation. The discussion here encompasses usage only in the Christian tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confession (religion)</span> Acknowledgment of ones sins

Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of sinful thoughts and actions. This may occur directly to a god or to fellow people.

Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a part in confession among Anglicans and Methodists, in which it is a rite, as well as among other Protestants.

John McLeod Campbell was a Scottish minister and Reformed theologian. In the opinion of one German church historian, contemporaneous with Campbell, his theology was a highpoint of British theology during the nineteenth century. James B. Torrance ranked him highly on the doctrine of the atonement, placing Campbell alongside Athanasius of Alexandria and Anselm of Canterbury. Campbell took his cue from his close reading of the early Church Fathers, the historic Reformed confessions and catechisms, John Calvin, Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, and Jonathan Edwards' works.

In Christianity, salvation is the saving of human beings from sin and its consequences—which include death and separation from God—by Christ's death and resurrection, and the justification entailed by this salvation.

Substitutionary atonement, also called vicarious atonement, is a central concept within Western Protestant Christian theology which asserts that Jesus died "for us", as propagated by the Western classic and objective paradigms of atonement in Christianity, which regard Jesus as dying as a substitute for others, instead of them.

The governmental theory of the atonement is a doctrine in Christian theology concerning the meaning and effect of the death of Jesus Christ. It teaches that Christ suffered for humanity so that God could forgive humans without punishing them while still maintaining divine justice. In the modern era it is more often taught in non-Calvinist protestant circles, yet also bearing in mind that Arminius, John Wesley and other Arminians never speak clearly of it. It is drawn primarily from the works of Hugo Grotius and later theologians like John Miley and H. Orton Wiley.

The satisfaction theory of atonement is a theory in Catholic theology which holds that Jesus Christ redeemed humanity through making satisfaction for humankind's disobedience through his own supererogatory obedience. The theory draws primarily from the works of Anselm of Canterbury, specifically his Cur Deus Homo. It has been traditionally taught in the Roman Catholic tradition of Western Christianity. Since one of God's characteristics is justice, affronts to that justice must be atoned for. It is thus connected with the legal concept of balancing out an injustice.

The ransom theory of atonement was a theory in Christian theology as to how the process of Atonement in Christianity had happened. It therefore accounted for the meaning and effect of the death of Jesus Christ. It was one of a number of historical theories, and was mostly popular between the 4th and 11th centuries, with little support in recent times. It originated in the early Church, particularly in the work of Origen. The theory teaches that the death of Christ was a ransom sacrifice, usually said to have been paid to Satan, in satisfaction for the bondage and debt on the souls of humanity as a result of inherited sin.

Gustaf Emanuel Hildebrand Aulén was the Bishop of Strängnäs in the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran theologian, and the author of Christus Victor, a work which still exerts considerable influence on contemporary theological thinking on the atonement.

Christus Victor is a book by Gustaf Aulén published in English in 1931, presenting a study of theories of atonement in Christianity. The original Swedish title is Den kristna försoningstanken published in 1930. Aulén reinterpreted the classic ransom theory of atonement, which says that Christ's death is a ransom to the powers of evil, which had held humankind in their dominion. It is a model of the atonement that is dated to the Church Fathers, and it was the dominant theory of atonement for a thousand years, until Anselm of Canterbury supplanted it in the West with his satisfaction theory of atonement.

Penal substitution is a theory of the atonement within Protestant Christian theology, which declares that Christ, voluntarily submitting to God the Father's plan, was punished (penalized) in the place of (substitution) sinners, thus satisfying the demands of justice and propitiation, so God can justly forgive sins making us at one with God (atonement). It began with the German Reformation leader Martin Luther and continued to develop within the Calvinist tradition as a specific understanding of substitutionary atonement. The penal model teaches that the substitutionary nature of Jesus' death is understood in the sense of a substitutionary fulfilment of legal demands for the offenses of sins.

This is a glossary of terms used in Christianity.

Reconciliation, in Christian theology, is an element of salvation that refers to the results of atonement. Reconciliation is the end of the estrangement, caused by original sin, between God and humanity. John Calvin describes reconciliation as the peace between humanity and God that results from the expiation of religious sin and the propitiation of God's wrath. Evangelical theologian Philip Ryken describes reconciliation in this way; "It is part of the message of Salvation that brings us back together with God. ... God is the author, Christ is the agent and we are the ambassadors of reconciliation ." Although it is only used five times in the Pauline corpus it is an essential term, describing the "substance" of the gospel and salvation. Ralph Martin writing in the Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, suggests reconciliation is at the center of Pauline theology. Stanley Porter writing in the same volume suggests a conceptual link between the reconciliation Greek word group katallage and the Hebrew word shalom (שָׁלוֹם), generally translated as 'peace.'

Redemption is an essential concept in many religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The term implies that something has been paid for or bought back, like a slave who has been set free through the payment of a ransom.

Repentance is a stage in Christian salvation where the believer acknowledges and turns away from sin. As a distinct stage in the ordo salutis its position is disputed, with some theological traditions arguing it occurs prior to faith and the Reformed theological tradition arguing it occurs after faith. In Catholic theology, Lutheran theology, Orthodox theology and Anglican theology, repentance plays a key role in Confession and Absolution.

The recapitulation theory of the atonement is a doctrine in Christian theology related to the meaning and effect of the death of Jesus Christ.

References

1 2 Ruth Williams, "Atonement", in David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, Stanton Marlan, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion: L-Z (2009), p. 83.
↑ Linda Radzik, Making Amends: Atonement in Morality, Law, and Politics (2009).
↑ Niels-erik A. Andreasen, 'Atonement/Expiation in the Old Testament' in W. E. Mills (ed.), Mercer dictionary of the Bible (Mercer University Press, 1990)
↑ Theodore Millon, Melvin J. Lerner, Irving B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology (2003), p. 552.
↑ Paul Wink, Jonathan M. Adler, and Michelle Dillon, "Developmental and narrative perspectives on religious and spiritual identity for clinicians", in Jamie Aten, Kari O'Grady, Everett Worthington, Jr., eds., The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality for Clinicians (2013), Ch. 3, p. 51.
↑ "Atonement." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005.
↑ atonement. CollinsDictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved October 03, 2012: '2. (often capital) Christian theol a. the reconciliation of man with God through the life, sufferings, and sacrificial death of Christ b. the sufferings and death of Christ'.
↑ Matthew George Easton, 'Atonement' in Illustrated Bible Dictionary (T. Nelson & Sons, 1897).
↑ Ward, K. (2007) Christianity – a guide for the perplexed. SPCK, London, p. 48- 51.
↑ Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement, Gustaf Aulen, 1931.
↑ Vincent Taylor, The Cross of Christ (London: Macmillan & Co, 1956), p. 71-2.
↑ In which the atonement is spoken of as shared by all. To wit, God sustains the Universe. Therefore if Jesus was God in human form, when he died, we all died with him, and when he rose from the dead, we all rose with him. See Jeremiah, David. 2009. Living With Confidence in a Chaotic World, pp. 96 & 124. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.; Massengale, Jamey. 2013.Renegade Gospel, The Jesus Manifold. Amazon, Kindle.
↑ Manuel Ramirez III, Multicultural/Multiracial Psychology: Mestizo Perspectives in Personality and Mental Health (1998), p. 174.

External links

A Critique of Penal Substitution Atonement Theory and Its Influence on the American Death Penalty

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Williams-1] 1 2 Ruth Williams, "Atonement", in David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, Stanton Marlan, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion: L-Z (2009), p. 83.

[Radzik-2] Linda Radzik, Making Amends: Atonement in Morality, Law, and Politics (2009).

[3] Niels-erik A. Andreasen, 'Atonement/Expiation in the Old Testament' in W. E. Mills (ed.), Mercer dictionary of the Bible (Mercer University Press, 1990)

[4] Theodore Millon, Melvin J. Lerner, Irving B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology (2003), p. 552.

[5] Paul Wink, Jonathan M. Adler, and Michelle Dillon, "Developmental and narrative perspectives on religious and spiritual identity for clinicians", in Jamie Aten, Kari O'Grady, Everett Worthington, Jr., eds., The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality for Clinicians (2013), Ch. 3, p. 51.

[6] "Atonement." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005.

[CED-7] tonement. CollinsDictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved October 03, 2012: '2. (often capital) Christian theol a. the reconciliation of man with God through the life, sufferings, and sacrificial death of Christ b. the sufferings and death of Christ'.

[8] Matthew George Easton, 'Atonement' in Illustrated Bible Dictionary (T. Nelson & Sons, 1897).

[9] Ward, K. (2007) Christianity – a guide for the perplexed. SPCK, London, p. 48- 51.

[Aulen-10] Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement, Gustaf Aulen, 1931.

[11] Vincent Taylor, The Cross of Christ (London: Macmillan & Co, 1956), p. 71-2.

[12] In which the atonement is spoken of as shared by all. To wit, God sustains the Universe. Therefore if Jesus was God in human form, when he died, we all died with him, and when he rose from the dead, we all rose with him. See Jeremiah, David. 2009. Living With Confidence in a Chaotic World, pp. 96 & 124. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.; Massengale, Jamey. 2013.Renegade Gospel, The Jesus Manifold. Amazon, Kindle.

[13] Manuel Ramirez III, Multicultural/Multiracial Psychology: Mestizo Perspectives in Personality and Mental Health (1998), p. 174.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]