Suffering, not Power

Atonement in the Middle Ages

Benjamin Wheaton

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781683595991
• eBook ISBN:
  9781683596004
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Correcting a popular view of the atonement

Was Christ's death a victory over death or a substitution for sin? Many today follow Gustav Aulén's Christus Victor view, which portrays Christ's death as primarily a victory over the powers of evil and death. According to Aulén, this was the dominant view of the church until Anselm reframed atonement as satisfaction and the Reformers reframed it as penal substitution.

In Suffering, Not Power, Benjamin Wheaton challenges this common narrative. Sacrificial and substitutionary language was common well before Anselm's Cur Deus Homo. Wheaton displays this through a careful analysis of three medieval figures whose writings on the atonement are commonly overlooked: Caesarius of Arles, Haimo of Auxerre, and Dante Alighieri. These individuals come from different times and contexts and wrote in different genres, but each spoke of Christ's death as a sacrifice of expiation and propitiation made by God to God.

Let history speak for itself, read the evidence, and reconsider the church's belief in Christ's substitutionary death for sinners.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Dante Alighieri, Part I: Penal Substitution in the de Monarchia
• Chapter 3: Dante Alighieri, Part II: Penal Substitution and Satisfaction in the Paradiso
• Chapter 4: Caesarius of Arles, Part I: Sin Offering in Christus Victor
• Chapter 5: Caesarius of Arles, Part II: Expiation and the Devil’s Rights in Christus Victor
• Chapter 6: Haimo of Auxerre, Part I: Expiation and Propitiation in a Sacrificial Offering
• Chapter 7: Haimo of Auxerre, Part II: Sacrifice and Satisfaction in Christ’s Crucifixion
• Chapter 8: Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index