Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Atonement

What the death (and resurrection) of Christ accomplishes for sinners — reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sin, and victory over death and the powers.

English 'at-one-ment', coined by William Tyndale (1526) to render reconciliation; translates Hebrew kaphar ('to cover / purge') and Greek katallagē ('reconciliation') and hilasmos ('propitiation').

Isaiah 53; Mark 10:45; Romans 3:21–26; Romans 5:6–11; 2 Corinthians 5:18–21; Colossians 2:13–15; Hebrews 9–10; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2.

The NT uses many images (sacrifice, ransom, propitiation, victory, reconciliation, example); no ecumenical council defined a mechanism. Historical 'theories': ransom/recapitulation (patristic), satisfaction (Anselm), penal substitution (the Reformers), moral influence (Abelard), Christus Victor (Aulén), governmental (Grotius).

Best held as several biblical models together — substitutionary, victorious, and revelatory of love — located in the one triune God rather than a transaction between estranged parties.

Traditions differ over which model is central; Eastern Orthodoxy regards penal-substitution framing as a Western juridical narrowing; 'non-violent atonement' theories reject any Godward penal dimension.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.