Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Christus Victor

The view that the cross and resurrection are primarily God's victory over sin, death, and the devil, liberating humanity from bondage.

Latin, 'Christ the Victor'; the title of Gustaf Aulén's 1931 book that named and revived the model.

Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14–15; 1 John 3:8; John 12:31–32; 1 Corinthians 15:54–57; Revelation 5.

The dominant patristic and liturgical frame ('trampling down death by death'); re-centred by Aulén as the 'classic' view over against both Anselm and the Reformers.

Best when it incorporates rather than excludes the sacrificial and judicial language of the NT.

Critics say Aulén overstated the patristic evidence and that the model can under-describe how the guilt of sin is dealt with.

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