AN HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE THREE MAIN TYPES OF THE IDEA OF ATONEMENT
by GUSTAF AULÉN
translated by
A. G. HEBERT, m.a.
wipf & stock • Eugene, Oregon
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Christus Victor
An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement
By Aulén, Gustaf and Herbert, A.G.
Copyright© SPCK
ISBN 13: 978-1-59244-330-7
Publication date 9/5/2003
Previously published by SPCK, 1931
TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Chapter I.—The Problem and its Answers
1. The traditional account of the history of the idea of the Atonement envisages only the ‘objective,’ or Anselmian, and the ‘subjective’ or humanistic views
2. But there is another type of view, commonly left almost out of sight; it may be summed up in two phrases—‘Christus Victor,’ and “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” We shall see that this is the typical view of the New Testament and the Fathers, and was revived by Luther. We shall call this the ‘classic’ idea, and the Anselmian view the ‘Latin.’
3. Four main reasons may be given why the classic idea has been neglected by the historians of dogma
4. Our thesis will require considerable modifications in the commonly accepted historical perspective, with regard to the early church and to Luther
1. The purpose of the Incarnation, according to Irenæus, that God in Christ might deliver man from the enemies that hold him in bondage; sin, death, and the devil. The Recapitulation
2. Sin and death are closely connected. Salvation is life; sin is a state of spiritual death, guiltiness, and separation from God. The devil represented as a usurper, and redemption as the restoration of God’s original creation
3. The redemptive work is carried out through the Incarnation of Christ, the Obedience of His human life, His Death and Resurrection, and the coming of the Spirit. Thereby God who reconciles is also reconciled, and Atonement is effected
4. Conclusion
Chapter III.—The Fathers in East and West
1. Both in the Greek and in the Latin Fathers the classic idea is altogether dominant, with the partial exception that in the West at an early date the first hesitating beginnings of the Latin doctrine appear. Notes on Augustine and Gregory the Great
2. Incarnation and Atonement belong inseparably together; Athanasius, Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa
3. The dealings of Christ with the devil: Had the devil just rights over men? The idea of the ransom-price. The deception of the devil. The religious conceptions underlying this realistic imagery
4. The double-sidedness of the drama of the Atonement is inseparable from the classic idea: God is at once the Reconciler and the Reconciled
1. We should have a right to expect a priori that the view of the Fathers would be also that of the New Testament. Actually the New Testament has been claimed in support of each view of the Atonement ...
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About Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of AtonementGustaf Aulén’s classic work, Christus Victor, has long been a standard text on the atonement. Aulén applies a “history of ideas” methodology to historical theology in tracing the development of three views of the atonement. Aulén asserts that in traditional histories of the doctrine of the atonement only two views have usually been presented, the objective/Anselmian and the subjective/Aberlardian views. According to Aulén, however, there is another type of atonement doctrine in which Christ overcomes the hostile powers that hold humanity in subjection, at the same time that God in Christ reconciles the world to Himself. This view he calls the “classic” concept of the atonement. Because of its predominance in the New Testament, in patristic writings, and in the theology of Luther, Aulén holds that the classic type may be called the distinctively Christian idea of the atonement. |
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