Nonviolent Atonement Conference Wrestles with the Meaning of Jesus' Death

By Leo Hartshorn

For two days and evenings participants listened to scholarly presentations and discussed various theories of atonement and their implications for a peace theology. The event was co-sponsored by Preaching Peace and Every Church a Peace Church and held at Mennonite Central Committee's Welcoming Place in Akron, Pa on January 22-23, 2007. The overarching questions of the conference were: How shall we understand the death of Jesus? Is it necessary to speak of the wrath of God when discussing atonement?

Papers were presented by Michael Hardin, Education Coordinator for ECAPC and Director of Preaching Peace, J. Denny Weaver, retired professor at Bluffton College and author of The Nonviolent Atonement, Tony Bartlett, author of Cross Purposes, Peter Schmiechen, retired professor of theology, former president of Lancaster Theological Seminary and author of Saving Power, Thomas Finger, author of A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology, Sharon Baker, assistant professor of theology at Messiah College and author of By Grace? (An)Economy of Atonement, Mark Baker, Associate professor of Mission and Theology and author Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross, and David Eagle, a Canadian Mennonite Brethren pastor of Saanich Community Church.

One issue dominant in the presentation was the problematic nature of the divine necessity of violence within what is known as the "penal substitutionary theory of atonement." In this theory God wills Jesus' death as a necessary payment for divine laws broken by sinful humanity or as a means to restore God's honor. Thus, violence is a divine necessary for human salvation. Most presenters advocated options to the divine necessity of violence inherent in this theory of atonement. As alternatives for the dominant penal substitutionary view some presenters proposed multiple theories of atonement (Schmiechen), an alternative model of Narrative Christus Victor (Weaver, Finger), Girardian mimetic theory (Bartlett, Hardin), and other nuanced critiques and proposals. While most sought to avoid attributing violence to God, one presenter suggested that violence, defined very broadly, is so woven into life that everyone is culpable, as well as God. The final presenter, Mark Baker, offered some practical tools for educating Christians in the use of alternative, nonviolent models of atonement for congregations.

Although such critiques of the traditional substitutionary theory of atonement as presented at this conference may seem thorny for the average congregational setting, there is a need, especially for those espousing peace theology, to enter the conversation on the violent implications of traditional views of the saving significance of Jesus' death. The search for language, educational models, and forums for discussing anti-violent views of the cross, beyond academic theological circles, is a necessary agenda for the church that seeks to live by and communicate the saving life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Suggested Reading:

Gustav Aulen, Christus Victor, Macmillan Pub. Co., 1969.
Mark Baker, ed. Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross, Baker, 2006
Anthony W. Bartlett, Cross Purposes: The Violent Grammar of Christian Atonement, Trinity Press International, 2001.
Hans Boersma, Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition, Eerdmans, 2004.
Gregory Boyd, The Nature of Atonement: Four Views, Intervarsity, 2006.
Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker, Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us, Beacon, 2001.
Joanne Carlson Browen and Carole R. Bohn, eds., Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse: A Feminist Critique, Pilgrim, 1989.
Cynthia S. W. Crysdale, Embracing Travail: Retrieving the Cross Today, Continuum, 1999.
Paul R. Eddy ed., The Nature of the Atonement, Intervarsity, 2006.
Stephen Finlan, Problems with Atonement: The Origins of, and Controversy About, The Atonement Doctrine, Liturgical Press, 2005.
Timothy Gorringe, God's Just Vengeance: Crime, Violence, and the Rhetoric of Salvation, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Joel Green and Mark Baker, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts, Intervarsity, 2000.
S. Mark Heim, Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross, Eerdmans, 2006.
Scot McKnight, Jesus and His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus and Atonement Theory, Baylor University Press, 2005.
Darby Kathleen Ray, Deceiving the Devil: Atonement, Abuse, and Ransom, Pilgrim, 1998.
Peter Schmiechen, Saving Power: Theories of Atonement and Forms of the Church, Eerdmans, 2005.
John Sanders, ed., Atonement and Violence: A Theological Conversation, Abingdon, 2006.
JoAnne Marie Terrell, Power in the Blood? The Cross in the African-American Experience,
Marit Trelstad, ed., Cross Examinations: Readings on the Meaning of the Cross Today, Augsburg, 2006.
J. Denny Weaver, The Nonviolent Atonement, Eerdmans, 2001.
Vitor Westhelle, The Scandalous Cross: The Use and Abuse of the Cross, Fortress, 2006.