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The Ground of Faith
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April/May 2005

Quotations from the Catholic Encyclopaedia to do with the Atonement

"But the peace of that reconciliation was accomplished by the death of the Divine Redeemer, "making peace through the blood of His cross" (Coloss. 1. 20). This redemption by death is another mystery, and some of the church Fathers in the first ages are led to speculate on its meaning, and to construct a theory in explanation. Here the words and figures used in Holy Scripture help to guide the current of theological thought. Sin is represented as a state of bondage or servitude, and fallen man is delivered by being redeemed, or bought with a price. "For you are bought with a great price" (I Cor., vi, 20) ..."The mighty Word and true Man reasonably redeeming us by His blood, gave Himself a ransom for those who had been brought into bondage. And since the Apostasy [the Devil] unjustly ruled over us, and, whereas we belonged by nature to God Almighty, alienated us against nature and made us his own disciples, the Word of God, being mighty in all things, and failing not in His justice, dealt justly even with the Apostasy itself, buying back from it the things which were His own" (Irenaeus [c. 125-202 AD] Aversus Haereses V, i)

A modern Catholic view (similar to that pointed to by Stephen} is that of St Anselm who refers to the need of satisfaction of sin. No sin, as he views the matter, can be forgiven without satisfaction. A debt to Divine justice has been incurred; and that debt must needs be paid. [Quotations from the Catholic Encyclopaedia. Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109: Cur Deus Homo] Jesus' death is regarded as satisfaction for that debt. This view has also been taken over by Evangelical theology, and is still the official view of the Catholic church.

It can be argued that this "debt to Divine justice" has a lot in common with the Old Testament Lex talionis, eye for an eye, and nothing to do with the Christian God of Love; and of course this is what Stephen is arguing. Lex talionis also has something in common with the Eastern idea of Karma. Elsewhere in relation to this concept, Stephen says that Karmic debts can only be repaid with love. (i.e. The inevitability of Karma is not part of Stephen's thinking.)

It has always been a tendency in some Christian theology, to take a Biblical metaphor too far, and draw unwarranted conclusions. It can be plausibly argued that Irenaeus and Anselm have done just this with Matthew 20:28//Mark 10:45 writing of Jesus giving his life "as a ransom for many". Widely known in Jesus' time, was the Fourth Book of Maccabees, perhaps written c. 100 BC. Chapters 14.11 to 17.6 describes the martyrdom of a widow and her seven sons. At 18.22 we read "They became as it were a ransom for our nation's sin, and through the blood of these righteous one and their propitiating death, the divine Providence preserved Israel which before was evil entreated. For when the tyrant Antiochus saw the courage of their virtue and their endurance under torments, he held up their endurance to his soldiers as an example .." [my italics]. Exactly these terms "ransom" "sacrificial blood" "propitiation" are applied to Jesus in the New Testament. It was the later theologians who took away the "as it were" in their thinking.