More on Atonement

Big thanks to Maggi Dawn for a post musing on the recent arguments about atonement and saying things that I want to be said, first off about the fact of plurality of understandings and what needs to be in there. You may recall my having said a few things a little while back, but here're Maggi's sage words.

A thoroughgoing theory of atonement needs to be multi-faceted. It needs to include an understanding of the rightful anger of God against violence, hatred, injustice, the abuse of power - in fact against all that mitigates against love. That's what sin means. An atonement theory also needs to include the idea that the cross is an inspiration and example to us to lay down our lives for our friends. (I'm quoting John quoting Jesus there, I didn't make that up). And further, it also needs a more universal view, something that reflects the idea that atonement is not limited to the sins of an individual, but that the world and everything in it is released not only from human sin, but from the grip of evil and the tendency for things to degenetrate into violence and destruction. An associated idea that should always be noted, I think, is the warning that anyone (Jesus being the first among equals in this regard) who devotes their life to justice and peace and love is likely to end up paying dearly for it. Finally, any discussion of the atonement needs to aknowledge an element of mystery - because however much sense-making our theology does of the atonement, there's always an added sense that we don't totally know "how it works", although that needn't stop us knowing it does work.

Quite so. The problem is, of course, when one finds a theory that makes some kind of sense and then commits oneself to it, it is hard to credit that some other people don't find something about it as explanatory or exciting as one does oneself. The temptation then is to hereticise the others because they miss vital things or somesuch. Of course, we should try to develop spiritual reflexes for such times that scream out to us "Motes and beams", but sadly we often don't and instead harden our oppositional stances and say things that are hard to back down from. We develop a stake in arguing hard one way and attributing bad stuff to opponents. That's why I'm with Maggi when she goes further to say,

I am so tired of liberals slagging off Evangelicals for being narrow; of evangelicals dismissing liberals for being woolly. It's so pointless. I hear the words of the Epistles of John echoing in my head - written, it would appear, by an elderly man who sums up the wisdom of his years by saying, "Children, you know the only thing that really matters in the end? - that you love one another. "

The longer I live, the more I believe that the beauty of the atonement is not that it only works if you believe it in the right way, it's that it works even if you don't understand it at all. I'm not going soft on doctrine - I love doctrine with a passion, and I spend a good slice of my life teaching it - but even I have to admit that we aren't saved by doctrine, and that God can be visibly and awesomely at work in the lives of people whose doctrine is well wide of the mark. The grace and generosity of God is, I'll grant you, completely outrageous.

Amen. And thanks Maggi for reminding us of all that in one relatively short post.
maggi dawn: Pierced for our transgressions

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