Why Did Jesus Die and What Does That Have to Do with Me?

A Biblical and Sacramental Understanding of Atonement

Fred R. Anderson

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781666750997
  9781666751000
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666751017
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

This book looks at atonement biblically, theologically, historically, and sacramentally. Biblically it is tied to Scripture's narrative of humanity's failure to fulfill God's intention and God's subsequent covenant with Abraham fulfilled in Jesus. Theologically, in Jesus the eternal Logos became incarnate to fulfill God's intention to deal with sin and begin again with a new creation. Jesus' death was not a payment for anything to anyone! It was the Triune God's non-violent way of absorbing, defeating, and overcoming sin and death for the world. Two chapters focus on sacrifice: how it functioned in Israel's life with God, how Paul and Hebrews use it, and how it thereafter took on pagan connotations. Historically, three chapters review the development of atonement theories through Gustav Aulen's Christus Victor. After reviewing atonement theologies of the last seventy-five years--especially feminist critiques of them--this retrieves Irenaeus and Athanasius, offering an understanding of atonement influenced by Baillie, Barth, Moltmann, Torrance, Von Balthazar, Tanner, and Weaver. Sacramentally, it describes how atonement is realized through the word, baptism, Eucharist, and prayer. Sacramental "atonement" nurtures those "in Christ" as members of God's new creation through Jesus' continuing high priestly ministry of atonement, until his final return.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: The Question
• Chapter 2: Where to Begin?
• Chapter 3: Baptism and the Supper through the Eyes of the Church Then and Today
• Chapter 4: Why We Need Atonement—The Problem
• Chapter 5: Sacrifice in Israel’s Life with God
• Chapter 6: New Testament Application of Sacrifice to Jesus
• Chapter 7: Atonement Theories
• Chapter 8: Atonement Theories from the Enlightenment to the Early Twentieth Century
• Chapter 9: Twentieth-Century Atonement Theologies—Incarnation Recovered
• Chapter 10: Feminists and Liberation Theology
• Chapter 11: What God Has Done in Jesus Christ
• Chapter 12: God’s New Creation
• Chapter 13: Growing in Christ—Putting Him On
• Bibliography
• For Further Reading