VI THE ATONEMENT BY W. H. MOBERLY FELLOW AND LECTURER IN PHILOSOPHY, LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD FORMERLY FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE SYNOPSIS INTRODUCTION The Atonement has largely dropped out of modern Christianity; for the modern mind builds on moral experience, and is unable to see how the doctrine of the Atonement fits into or bears on such experience The appeal to experience is right, but (1) We must not construe experience too narrowly Has the modern world the same problem as St. Paul, and, I. THE PROBLEM-THE EXISTENCE AND NATURE OF SIN PAGE 269-274 269 271 271 272 273 274-285 Suggestion that the sense of sin is morbid and that modern men are outgrowing it. The Once-Born and the Twice-Born types of religious experience; to which correspond the Liberal view of sin as a stage in moral progress, and the Conservative view of sin as a rebellion which rightly incurs the wrath of God These views are influenced by the type of metaphor preferred: the Liberal inclines to biological, the Conservative to legal metaphors Original sin.—It is rejected by the Liberal, because (2) Sin is only sin, in so far as it proceeds from the will of the sinner himself 274 280 282 282 (3) Original guilt is impossible, for the individual is only responsible for what he might have prevented . 283 But (1) There may be a condition of "fallenness" without an historical Fall. 283 (3) Corporate sin is a fact. (2) No sharp division can be made between the voluntary and the involuntary 284 284 II. THE CONDITIONS OF A SOLUTION (1) The Liberal view. The past is unimportant; we should (2) The Conservative view. Liberal optimism conflicts (b) With the facts of human nature; for past sin involves (c) With the witness of religious experience (3) The "inclusive" view: PAGE 286-298 286 288 289 290 (a) The Liberal is right in making the problem a moral (b) And in rejecting legal imagery as inadequate (c) But he under-estimates the magnitude of the problem Penitence is that which, in experience, comes nearest to furnishing the moral transformation needed. But, in experience, individual penitence is never complete, and hence is never really atoning In experience, it is supplemented (a) By punishment, which should stimulate penitence But even if penitence in the individual were ideally complete, III. THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST 290 291 292 293 295 296 297 298-316 (1) The Liberal view. The work of Christ was to teach men the true nature of God and to set an example of the highest kind of human life, which it behoves all men to follow (2) The Conservative view. It is the death of Christ that is fundamental: it saves men from the burden of guilt and from the consequent wrath of God (3) The "inclusive" view. Neither Liberalism nor Conservatism by itself is satisfactory; but we agree with the Liberal that it was the moral character of Jesus, as shown during his whole life, which is of the first importance, and with the Conservative that the death was necessary and in no sense accidental to the fulfilment of his work The death of Jesus was necessary : . (i.) Historically, it was deliberately incurred in the fulfil- (ii.) It was an example of vicarious penitence. (Vicarious (iii.) It was intrinsically necessary, both in general to the Further, the work of Jesus Christ was the work of God. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." The recognition of this is necessary not only to any adequate theodicy, but to the universalizing of the work of Christ ; and this involves not only the Crucifixion but the Resurrection IV. THE RELATION OF THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST ΤΟ (1) Liberalism makes this too slight (3) According to the "inclusive" view, salvation must take effect within us, but must be initiated from outside us. Christian theology has provided a reasoned account, on these lines, of the process by which the lifework of Jesus may come to make a vital difference to all men Thus (a) The historical facts of the life and death of Christ PAGE 310 314 317-327 317 318 319 321 322 322 Consequences (1) Practical: (a) Though religion must issue in character, character, 324 (b) The Gospel offer is not only a position of privilege 324 (2) Theoretical : (a) "Justification' cannot properly be separated from "sanctification (b) Our ordinary conception of personality is too V. SOME OBJECTIONS AND FINAL SUMMARY Objections: (1) We are minimizing the difference between religion and mere morality. (2) We are substituting mere ideas for the historical facts. Further difficulty as to the relation of the work of Christ to |