Christ Crucified in a Suffering World: The Unity of Atonement and Libreation

Conclusion: The Unity of Atonement and Liberation

Conclusion: The Unity of Atonement and Liberation I have argued that Karl Barth’s theology of the cross bridges the divide between atonement theologies that emphasize Christ’s saving work and liberation theologies that stress the emancipatory significance of his death. On the cross, Jesus reconciles humanity with God and confronts the sinful root of all unjust affliction. Through his death, we find fellowship with God and the foundation for ethical human community. In these final pages, I will summarize my argument, outline the union and dual dimensionality of the Hegelian categories in Barth’s thought, review the conversation between Barth, Torrance, and Sobrino, and provide a final discussion of the unity of atonement and liberation. I will then offer a closing reflection on Theophanes the Cretan’s sixteenth century icon, “The Crucifixion.” Summary of Argument Karl Barth unites atonement for sin and liberation from suffering by making two concurrent moves, one in formal structure and the other in theological content. Formally, Barth unites the Hegelian categories (externality, internality, particularity, and universality) that Hegel separates and that Thomas F. Torrance and Jon Sobrino underdevelop (internality and universality in Torrance’s case; externality and particularity in Sobrino’s). At the same time, Barth’s theological content interweaves eternal, spiritual reality and temporal, material existence both indirectly and directly. Indirectly, Barth connects the eternal, spiritual and the temporal, material dimensions by correlating the four Hegelian categories to each. Directly, Barth draws temporal, material implications from his account of eternal, spiritual reality. This second move, in both its indirect and direct modes, constitutes the dual dimensionality of Barth’s theology of the cross. 237 The Union and Dual Dimensionality of Hegelian Categories in Barth’s Theology of the Cross In the following ways, Barth unites the Hegelian categories while relating each to the eternal, spiritual and the temporal, material dimensions of the cross. Barth preserves God’s aseity such that God remains completely free and unconstrained in Godself (externality). Yet God reveals God’s character as both merciful and righteous in the person of Jesus Christ. In freedom, God reconciles humanity with Godself, thereby determining both humanity’s identity as the object of God’s mercy and normative social practice as action to relieve distress. Christ then calls Christians to participate in his prophetic office through their witness to reconciliation. In this way, God’s externality no longer remains an abstraction but in Jesus Christ indicates God’s eternal character and God’s determination of humanity beyond and within the temporal, material milieu of human life, community, and history. God’s existence beyond humanity does not diminish God’s kenotic assumption of human life and affliction (internality). Through the incarnation of the eternal Son, God enters into the temporal, material conditions of human life in Jesus Christ. The Son’s incarnation entails God’s internality to both humanity and human suffering as well as affliction’s entrance into the heart of God. In Jesus Christ, God draws near to every afflicted person, great and small. Further, through Christ’s work of reconciliation, by which he bears and removes both sin and suffering, humanity finds location within Christ as he represents humanity before God and reveals God to humanity. As a necessary outworking, Christians enter fellowship with Christ in his prophetic office and witness, through word, deed, and life pattern, to the reconciliation of the cross. By virtue of their union with Christ, Christians display an existential affliction and liberation in analogical correspondence to Christ’s work. Internality, in this way, directs our gaze to the self-existent God, who in merciful love removes all barriers between God and sinful, suffering humanity, uniting Godself to the object of God’s love at tremendous personal cost. Jesus’ cross, however, is distinguishable from the countless other instances of horrific suffering throughout history by the exclusive uniqueness of the One who died there and of what he there accomplished (particularity): “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”1 By recognizing their reconciliation with God, Christians receive a particular vocation to witness, within the unique temporal, material contexts of their lives, to the eternal, 1. 2 Cor. 5:19. 238 | Christ Crucified in a Suffering World spiritual reconciliation of the world to God. Their affliction and liberation distinguish them from others as a sign of the cross that accompanies their...