The Atonement is the central doctrine of Christianity: everything else derives from it. It is reconciliation with God, of people who have sinned. It is a concept of forgiveness and repair, based on the mercy of God, the central idea of Christianity.

It attempts to explain why the sinless human being Jesus died, and in terms of the Trinity, why God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, incarnated in human flesh as Jesus, suffered horribly and died on the cross.

Especially prominent in western Christianity is the concept of substitutionary atonement pioneered by Anselm of Canterbury and adapted by Pierre Abélard, Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotius, John Calvin, John Miley and others. (Eastern Orthodoxy has a substantively different soteriology; this is sometimes cited as the core difference between Eastern and Western Christianity.)

A different concept of atonement exists in Judaism. The Holiest day of the year is the Day

Atonement theories in Christianity

1 - Christus Victor

Recapitulation

• Irenaeus, Eastern Orthodox Church, some Lutherans

Ransom

• Origen, Gregory of Nyssa

2 - Moral Influence

• Pierre Abélard & Atonement (Moral influence view)

3 - Satisfaction

• Substitutionary atonement & Atonement (Satisfaction view)

Divine satisfaction

• Anselm of Canterbury & Salvation in Catholicism

Penalty or Punishment satisfaction

• John Calvin, Calvinism, & Imputed righteousness

4 - Governmental

• Hugo Grotius, James Arminius, John Miley
• Substitutionary atonement & Atonement (Governmental view)
• Jonathan Edwards & Charles Grandison Finney

See also

• Divine mercy
• Atonement (Governmental view)
• Forgiveness
• Justification
• Mercy seat
• Pardon
• Propitiation
• Scapegoat
• Sin
• Substitutionary atonement

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