Atonement

A ritual action that repairs a damaged relationship between humans and God. The Old Testament contains elaborate laws about atonement. Rather than pay the penalty in person, sinners arranged for animals to be sacrificed on their behalf. These ‘sin offerings' were understood to make amends when people broke the law of Moses. The Day of Atonement described in the Old Testament is a yearly day of fasting that is still kept by Jews. The New Testament draws on language from the Old Testament to describe the crucifixion of Jesus as an act of atonement for sins. The death of Jesus on the cross was understood as a sacrifice to God on behalf of sinners. The crucifixion is also described in the Bible as a ‘ransom' price and as a victory over the devil. These ideas were later developed into various theories of what the death of Jesus on the cross meant.

Christian writers throughout the centuries have emphasised different aspects of the atonement. The dominant view has been that Jesus was punished for the sins of others while dying on the cross. However, other theologians thought that Jesus was paying a ransom price to the devil on the cross, who had been holding humanity hostage. A smaller number emphasised how the death of Jesus was an act of love and in this sense an example to follow. Current debates focus on the language used in the New Testament for the atonement (e.g. was it literal or symbolic?) or the problem of sacred violence which it seems to involve.