Idea Transcript
THE ACTUALITY OF ATONEMENT A
Study of Metaphor, Rationality and the Christian Tradition Colin E. Gunton
T&TCLARK EDINBURGH
T&T CLARK LTD 59 GEORGE STREET EDINBURGH EH2 2LQ SCOTLAND Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd, 1 988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of T&T Clark Ltd.
First published 1 988 Latest impression 1 994
ISBN 0 567 29220 7
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data record for this book is available from the British Library
A catalogue
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Redwood Books, Wiltshire
In Memoriam
George Bradford Caird 1917-1984
Vivian Gerald Hines 1912-1987
CONTENTS
Preface Acknowledgements 1.
Xl XIV
PATTERNS OF RATIONALISM Where We Stand I II Redemption by Reason: Immanuel Kant and the Rationalism of Morality III Translation and Reduction: F. D. E. Schleiermacher and the Rationalism of Experience IV Metaphor and Concept: Hegel and Conceptual Rationalism Rationalism and Rationality V
16 23
2.
METAPHOR AND THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE The Dynamics of Metaphor I Words and the World II III Words and the World IV Metaphor in Theology Language in Action V
27 27 32 36 40 48
3.
THE BATTLEFIELD AND THE DEMONS A Divine and Human Victory I The Old Testament and the New II III The Language of Demons IV The Language of Victory
53 53 59 62 74
1 1 3 9
VII
THE ACTUALITY OF ATONEMENT 4.
5.
6.
7.
Vlll
THE JUSTICE OF GOD: A CONVERSATION 83 I Overlaps 83 II Anselm of Canterbury 87 III Beyond the Legal Metaphor 93 IV The Justice of God 96 V Justice, Justification, Judgement 1 00 VI Two Twentieth Century Theologies 1 05 CHRIST THE SACRIFICE: A DEAD METAPHOR? I The Problem II The Bible and the Metaphor III Edward Irving and the Priestly SelfOffering of Christ IV The Logic of Sacrifice
128 1 35
THE ATONEMENT AND THE TRIUNE GOD I Relation II God: in the Beginning III God: in the End IV Subjective and Objective V Representation and Substitution VI Two Systematic Questions
1 43 1 43 145 150 155 160 167
THE COMMUNITY OF RECONCILIATION I Perplexity II Truth III Victory IV Judgement V Forgiveness VI Community VII Praise
173 173 178 180 1 83 1 88 195 200
References and Bibliography
205
Index of Biblical References
215
. Index of Subjects
217
Index of Names
221
1 15 1 15 120
IX
PREFACE
In his The Atonement and the Sacraments ( 1 96 1, p.2 1 6), Rob ert S. P au l remarked t hat 'When Ho race Bushnell s po ke of an annu al harvest o f boo ks o n t he Ato nement, he was perh aps exagg erat ing, but by t he end o f t he ninet eent h ce ntury th is was beco ming lit eral fact . ' It was not very dif ferent wit h t he years bet ween th en and t he publicat io n o f P rofesso r P au l 's boo k, which closely fo llo wed J. S. W hale's splendid Victor and Victim, one o f t he inspirat io ns fo r t his stu dy. Since t hen, ho wever, t he floo d has declined to a t rickle. P erhaps t he o ne majo r t heo log ical stu dy in Eng lis h has been F.W. Dillisto ne's The Christian Understanding of Atonement, recent ly reprint ed, but no w nearly t went y years old. Indeed, it has recent ly been argu ed, in t he art icle by Colin Grant so ent itled, t hat t here has t aken place 'The Abando nment of Ato nement ' (Grant 1 986). Ot her matt ers have t aken prio rity, amo ng t hem a preo ccupat ion wit h Christ ianity's mo ral and social respo nsibit ies . Import ant as t he latt er are, however, t he chu rch will be redu ced to empty rheto ric and mindless co nfo rmist act ivis m unless it is root ed in a living t radit io n o f wo rs hip and prais e, cent red o n t he cross and resu rrect io n of Jesus. Christ ianit y is goo d news, gospel, not becaus e it o ffers final so lut io ns to t he pro blems of t he inner city (o r what ever), t hough t here is no dou bt t hat it has mu ch to s ay to t hos e who live bot h at t he cent re and at t he marg ins o f ou r so ciet y, but becaus e it pro claims and lives fro m a prio r and redeeming act o f Go d in Jesus Christ . XI
THE ACTUALITY OF ATONEMENT It is not being denied, however , that as the pr odu ct of a par ticular tim e and place this book, like all theolog y, takes shape in a par ticu lar context, s o that an attempt to r eopen an appar ently clos ed qu es tion s hou ld not be s een as a bolt fr om the blue. Alongs ide our contem por ary pre oc cu pation with social ethics is another , that of the very poss ibility and natur e of speech abou t God. In this ar ea, ther e have been s tu dies of m etaphor , and of the way it can be conceived to cr eate possibilities for theolog y. Bu t none, so far , have exam ined the m etaphors in which our unders tanding of s alvation, and ther efor e of who God is and we ar e, has been cou ched. Althoug h theolog ians ar e am ong the las t to realis e it, t her e has been in r ecent years s om ething of a s ea-chang e i n the way in which the Enlightenm ent's her itag e has bee n r eceived i n our cultur e, and the opening chapters o f this book take u p in a differ ent place the them e of Enlig htenm ent and Alienation. In them ther e ar e charted s om e of the r eas ons why the verdict of an earlier gener ation on the Chris tian theolog y of s alvation s hou ld not be taken as final, or even cr edible. Thes e chapters locate the book in cont em porar y debate, bu t us e su ch contextu alis ation as a spr ing boar d firs t for g oing far beyond the terms of that debate, and then for r eturning to the r eal context of theolog y, the wors hip, life and m iss ion of the chur ch. By us ing the s ys tem of r efer ences that I have, I have tried to avoid the tedium of excess ive footnoting and at the s am e tim e to give cr edit wher e poss ible t o thos e to whom I owe mu ch of the content of the work. Theology being what it is , an ess entially commu nal and convers ational dis cipline, ther e will be mu ch that I have r eceived fr om books and words that is not g iven du e acknowledg em ent. For that I would apolog ise, bu t, m ore especially, thank all who have contribu ted to the pr ocess . Am ong thos e especially are XII
has contr ibu ted in differ ent ways to all Dan i el Har dy, who is toph Schw6 bel, who read � nearly fin al stages , and to Chr es t� ons . ,graft and m ade valuable comm ents and sugg hIs colleagu es and een Gr ey Geoffr to o als e du e ar " "'Thanks is tance, and ass and nt em ag encour S;:?'.;'S.��llerH whic h is carefully qu alifi fu l o f mo ral opt imis tic theory. In fact , he is s corn t inde ed be mus · th at su ch a co rru pt pro pens ity o f the an nee d no t be fo rmally pro ved in view ro oted in m mples which experience of the mu ltitu de o f crying exa re ou r eyes ' (p. 28). T he facts s peak VJ, and, far fro m " " "�.·""'11 fro m the histo rical Jesu s o f Nazareth the achievement o f au to no mous individu als, too k n ty. Mo re� ver, Schleier��:��hap e only in a histo rical c� mmu . mach er differed fro m K ant m wlshmg to aVOld any sugg es tion of self-salvatio n, fo r he b elieved th at P elag ianism was o ne of the basic Christia n heresies. In o ther ways, ho wever, in he mu st be ju dg ed to have pro du ced a ratio nalism which to nly o served rk, wo own i ts ou tco me, if no t always in his t ransfer the pro blems o f K ant's Enlightenment ratio nalism on to ano ther plane. The reaso n fo r the two -sidedne ss of that assessm ent o f Schleiermacher lies i n the fact that his was a two -sided respo nse to K ant. On the o ne hand, he went beyo nd K ant, se eking to g rou nd Christian theo log y in an aspect o f the hu man relatio n to the wo rld which had been g iven a relatively mino r ro le by K ant. .!,!!. that re spect he provi...,I "'j'i.h.. �o o'f J . 'r'
....
� ��c>�e.�vo """.� \ 1,..e.UV"� y�,.k,
....�
f(
Uf15lD L:.::.J
PATTERNS OF RATIONALISM
THE ACTUALITY OF ATONEMENT
�I J'l
�
vJ,v� �
WV
I/'otway in which words may be conceived to express . and truth. It has long been held that some ways of -tv "1, meaning and truth are superior to others, often /\!, kinds of word are the only ones truly fitted to S 1''' '" . as they are. One favourite way of showing this ,� argue that meaning and truth are successfully conveyed by means of concepts of an int �llectual kind which h �ve . . e,1..rffd>' purified as completely as pOSSIble from all ImagmatIve . . �v' content. On such an account, concepts are ..distinguished from and opposed to pictures and �t-,} ,1: while the former are fitted to convey truth, the latter ¥"".e:, vJL} of their unclarity, the source of deceit and ft