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Various Christian theories of the Atonement

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Quotations showing different beliefs about the theories of the Atonement:

Overview:

In a religious sense, atonement means "at-one-ment." This is the state of being "at one" -- or reconciled -- with God. ₄

Christianity has historically taught that:

Early Christian theologians did not delve deeply into "how" the atonement came to be. Philip Schaff writes: "...the primitive church teachers lived more in the thankful enjoyment of redemption than in logical reflection upon it. We perceive in their exhibitions of this blessed mystery the language rather of enthusiastic feeling than of careful definition and acute analysis." ₅

The Epistles of Paul and other writings in the Christian Scriptures do not explain exactly how the atonement actually works. Most of the theologians from Origen (185-254 CE) until the present time have believed that the atonement is related in some way to the sacrificial and/or voluntary torture-death of Jesus. They selected certain passages in the Scriptures that agreed with their beliefs, and ignored others. In this way, they arrived at very different, conflicting, yet bible-based theories. In recent decades, some theologians have rejected atonement theories based on Yeshua's death. They argue in favor of a non-violent explanation for the atonement. For them, atonement is based on Yeshua's life, not his death.

All of these theories are biblically based. All conflict with each other. There is little hope that a consensus will be reached in the foreseeable future on which theory is the "correct" one.

There is little standardization on terminology for the various theories. We have used what we believe to be the most common name(s) for each theory.

Various writers state that there are 4, 5, 6, 10, and probably more theories of the atonement. They often regard all but one as erroneous, and perhaps even inspired by Satan. Unfortunately, they don't agree on which is the true theory, or even if a true theory exists.

Broadly speaking, the current accepted theories are:

Theories described in this section are:

Major theories of the atonement are listed below in chronological order: