Problems In Theology The Atonement by Michael Winter

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 Struggling with the Atonement

A Review of Michael Winter 's The Atonement (Liturgical Press , 1995

Abstract

This review deals with the ever-vexing problem of the atonement . This is posited to be not the paying of a ransom ' to God , or even of assuaging His outraged honor ' but rather the reconnecting of God and man through the nativity . Winter accepts the conclusion that the crucifixion of God was not literally necessary , but that the death of Christ was a victory over death , and hence , changed the world and

global history Why did Jesus need to die ? Even more , whey did He need to die a horrid humiliating death on the Cross ? These are questions that Christianity has been dealing with since its inception at Pentecost . While the nature of the incarnation is clear , and the effusion of divinity within matter has been dealt with in great detail , the actual mechanics ' of the Atonement have not . Dealing with this issue both at a historical and theological level , is the purpose of this book . The thesis of this review is that Winter has successfully dealt with the historical evidence , and is correct in his rejection of Anselm of Canterbury 's conclusion that Christ 's death was some sort of ransom ' paid to the demons for the release ' of man 's debts

The basic argument of this book , and of so much patristic and subsequent speculation on this is that the redemption (a word that Winter avoids , with...