Theories of Atonement or Redemption

“The Church is born of the Paschal Mystery

and Eucharist stands at the center.”

Understanding terminology: Paschal Mystery refers to the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Since the Eucharist stands at the center, as the source and summit, flowing from the paschal

mystery, and continuing the saving work of God,

we further our understanding of the Eucharist by exploring the four major

theories of atonement or redemption.

Understanding terminology: Atonement means at-one and similar to redemption refers to the saving action of Jesus to reconcile or restore our friendship with God. Atonement/Redemption theories attempt to explain how our salvation was accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

1. Ransom/ Christ as Victor

The early church leaders explained our redemption as a rescue or

liberation from Satan.

Christ was the ransom, freeing us from the bondage of sin.

Ransom/ Christ as Victor

A variation of the ransom theory,

Christ as Victor was widely promoted as a way to explain our salvation.

The risen Christ defeats death, trampling death by death, and restoring life by his risen life.

Ransom/ Christ as Victor

We are liberated from the slavery of sickness and sin.

In Christ VictoriousMercy triumphs over justice;

Love is greater than evil; Life wins over death.

2. Satisfaction

The theory of Satisfaction to explain redemption was promoted by St. Anselm (about 1100 A.D.).

Due to the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve,

Christ in his perfect obedience on the cross, satisfied the covenant of honor due to God, and

therefore restored our relationship with God.

SatisfactionSt. Thomas Aquinas ( 1250 A.D.) refined the

theory, adding that Christ satisfied the justice due God

by suffering for (but not in place of) us (we are co-workers in our redemption

and join our sufferings in union with Christ), thereby satisfying the requirements

of the covenant and restoring our relationship with God.

SatisfactionIn the theory of Satisfaction,

penance or punishment is a corrective measure

towards restoration of the friendship of God and us.

The theory tends toward a legal view of atonement.

SatisfactionA variation of Satisfaction,

Substitutionary Atonement or Penal substitution championed by the Protestant reformers

promotes the idea the Christ was punished in place of the sinner, ie. Substitution, satisfying the

demands of justice (and the wrath) of God, so that God can forgive us.

Substitutionary atonement/penal substitution is not part of Catholic faith and theology.

3. Recapitulation/ Divinization

St. Irenaeus (200 A.D.) said, “God became what we are so that He might bring us

to what He is Himself.”

Recapitulation/ DivinizationThe theory of Recapitulation describes the sacrifice of the

cross as an offering that undoes or changes and restores us back to the original

plan.

We were originally meant for eternal life, to be co-sharers in the work of creation,

and co-workers in the knowledge of good and evil (Love).

By the Paschal Mystery, Christ has restored us to our original relationship with God.

Recapitulation/ Divinization

Divinization explains that “God became man,

so that we could be God” (St. Athanasius) (in his energies and operations,

i.e. eternal life and love, although we do not become God

in his essence and identity).

4. Moral Influence

Our desires are provoked by the desires of others.

Christ, by his identification with the innocent victim reveals the face of all victims.

The sacrifice of Christ saves us from the scapegoating and violence that plagues humanity and reorients our

desires towards that which is good and holy.

Thus, by Christ’s sacrifice, we are saved from (being) sacrificed.

The Eucharist Continues the Saving Work of Christ.

“The sacramental character of faith finds its highest expression in the Eucharist. The

Eucharist is a precious nourishment for faith: an encounter with Christ truly present in the

supreme act of his love, the life-giving gift of himself (Pope Francis, #44 Light of Faith).”


"The Eucharist is indelibly marked by the event of the Lord's passion and death, of which it is not only a reminder but the sacramental re-presentation...

When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of

salvation becomes really present and “the work of our redemption is carried out”. This sacrifice is so decisive

for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had

left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there (Saint John Paul II)."


Jesus’ gesture at the Last Supper is the ultimate thanksgiving to the Father for his love, for his mercy.

“Thanksgiving” in Greek is expressed as “eucharist”. And that is why the Sacrament is called the Eucharist: it is the supreme thanksgiving to the Father, who so loved us that he gave us his Son out of love.

This is why the term Eucharist includes the whole of that act, which is the act of God and man together, the act of Jesus Christ, true God

and true Man. Therefore the Eucharistic Celebration is much more than simple

banquet: it is exactly the memorial of Jesus’ Paschal Sacrifice, the mystery at the centre of salvation.

“Memorial” does not simply mean a remembrance, a mere memory; it means that every time we celebrate this Sacrament we participate in the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of

Christ (Pope Francis, audience Feb. 5, 2014).”


“He called the bread his living body and he filled it with himself and his Spirit...

He who eats it with faith, eats Fire and Spirit... Take and eat this, all of you,

and eat with it the Holy Spirit. For it is truly my body and whoever eats it

will have eternal life (Saint Ephrem)."


“Do not see in the bread and wine merely natural elements,

because the Lord has expressly said that they are his body and his blood:

faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise

( Saint Cyril of Jerusalem).”


“For what is the bread? It is the body of Christ. And what do those who receive it become?

The Body of Christ – not many bodies but one body. For as bread is completely one, though made of up

many grains of wheat, and these, albeit unseen, remain nonetheless present, in such a way that their

difference is not apparent since they have been made a perfect whole,

so too are we mutually joined to one another and together united with Christ (Saint John Chrysostom)."


"In these signs (bread and wine), Christ the Lord willed to entrust to us his

body and blood which he shed for the forgiveness of our sins. If you have received them properly, you yourselves are what you

have received...not only have we become Christians, we have become Christ himself

(Saint Augustine)."


"In the Eucharist the Church is completely united to Christ and his sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of Mary. The Eucharist, like the Canticle of

Mary, is first and foremost praise and thanksgiving. When Mary exclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”, she already bears Jesus in her womb. She praises God

“through” Jesus, but she also praises him “in” Jesus and “with” Jesus. This is itself the true “Eucharistic

attitude (Saint John Paul II).”


"Mary is the great Believer who places herself confidently in God's hands, abandoning herself

to his will. This mystery deepens as she becomes completely involved in the redemptive

mission of Jesus (Benedict XVI, Sacrament of Charity #33)"

"We become witnesses when, through our actions, words, and way of being, Another

makes himself present (ibid, #85)."


“If you see love, you see the Trinity

(St. Augustine).”


"Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but

yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ's compassion to the

world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the

hands with which he is to bless (Saint Teresa of Avila).”

Education

Theories of Atonement or Redemption