From Logos to Christos: Essays on Christology in Honour of Joanne McWilliam

13 Jesus Died for Our Sins: Redemption as an Ethic of Risk

13 Jesus Died for Our Sins Redemption as an Ethic of Risk    CYNTHIA CRYSDALE Almighty God, Father of all mercies, We your unworthy servants give you humble thanks For all your goodness and loving-kindness To us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, And all the blessings of this life; But above all for your immeasurable love In the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ …1 THUS BEGINS the General Thanksgiving that is said in the daily office of the Anglican Church. Above all we give thanks to God for the love manifested in the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ. It is a simple enough prayer, and the words roll easily off our tongues. But the phrase “the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ” is anything but simple. How to understand the work of Jesus, and the meaning of “redemption,” has been the subject of many theologies over the centuries. And while much effort, and even blood, has been expended over the task of debating and defining the person of Jesus as both divine and human, yielding a number of creeds, the work of salvation has never been defined in an official teaching of the Church. Instead, the work of Anselm of Canterbury , with his “satisfaction” theory of the atonement, has held sway for over a thousand years, generating a number of hybrid offspring that reside in the hearts and minds of many contemporary believers.2 209 In recent decades, new attention has been paid to theologies of redemption , known also as theories of atonement. A number of critiques have ensued, not only of Anselm’s satisfaction theory but of its many derivatives as well. The key question seems to be whether the Christian kerygma can sustain an understanding of salvation that seems inherently to engage acts of violence. Christian feminists have unpacked the cult of suffering that ensues when the central narrative of the Gospel is about a father-figure God who wills the suffering and death of his Son.3 As more and more “theologies from the underside” come to the fore, theologians who speak for the oppressed have revealed the triumphalistic cruelty of the cross as an instrument of imperialism.4 The work of René Girard on scapegoating has provided a new angle from which both to understand and to criticize the violence of many atonement theories.5 Most recently, theologians from the peace churches—Mennonites and Quakers—have raised the challenge again: How can a good God have instituted a transaction for the forgiveness of our sins that is primarily understood as a required act of violent sacrifice?6 It is beyond the scope of a single chapter to recount the history of the many images, metaphors, and theories that have explained the work of Christ on the cross over the years.7 Even the current literature on the cross, atonement theory, and its revision presents a challenge for a single chapter .8 The purpose of this chapter is to imagine new ways of envisioning how the work of Jesus—even and especially the fact of his execution on a Roman cross—might be the occasion for transformation in believers’ lives today. After a short review of the “problems” with atonement theory, I will use the notions of an ethic of control and an ethic of risk to move beyond the idea of redemption as a transaction in which God solves the problem of human evil. Using the work of Sebastian Moore, I will then develop some ideas about how we can encounter the cross in ways that will reverse the cycle of decline and violence in our lives.9 Problems with Atonement In a recent book of this title, Stephen Finlan alludes to contemporary literature that highlights the problems believers have with the traditional doctrines of atonement. He begins, The agenda is largely set by the widespread dismay regarding the received doctrines of atonement, for instance, such notions as these: • God’s honor was damaged by human sin; • God demanded a bloody victim—innocent or guilty—to pay for human sin; 210 CHRISTOLOGY AND ETHICS • God was persuaded to alter God’s verdict against humanity when the Son of God offered to endure humanity’s punishment; • The death of the Son thus functioned as a payoff; salvation was purchased .10 Robert Daly, SJ, in reference to this...