Divine Violence and the Christus Victor Atonement Model
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Middlesex University Research Repository DIVINE VIOLENCE AND THE CHRISTUS VICTOR ATONEMENT MODEL. A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Martyn John Smith Middlesex University Supervised at London School of Theology May 2015 i Abstract Martyn John Smith Divine Violence and the Christus Victor Atonement Model Doctor of Philosophy Middlesex University/London School of Theology 2015 More recently, there has been in some quarters a theological move away from the Penal Substitution model of atonement primarily due to the concerns it raises about God’s character. This is paralleled by a desire to replace it with a less violent approach to soteriology, with the concomitant representation of a less coercive God. This thesis addresses the biblical manifestations of divine violence across both Testaments in order to present God as one for whom violence is an extrinsic, accommodated function. Divine violence is particularly manifested soteriologically, finding its fullest expression, therefore, in the atonement. The Christus Victor Model is offered as the one best able to explicate and accommodate this divine violence. The main atonement models are assessed, revealing how each has sought to engage with, or deny, divine violence. Firstly, God and violence are explored in order to provide an ideological, linguistic and epistemological foundation for understanding what violence is. Biblical examples of violence are then examined including both Testaments along with consideration of the Satan and the demonic realm; showing how God utilises violence in order to overcome these ontological enemies. Various atonement models are then examined, followed by a consideration of metaphor in the context of soteriology and God. Key scholars addressing violence are then assessed, followed by a section on the primacy of the Christus Victor atonement model; it is then presented as the only one which can fully incorporate the concomitant issues of God’s character, divine violence and an actual, evil enemy seeking to confound both God and His purposes. Further, the Christus Victor model is presented as the only one which is ontological, expressing a view of the atonement that both acknowledges God’s incontrovertible use and endorsement of extrinsic violence as well as the need to overcome an actual enemy in the Satan. ii Acknowledgement. For my wife Suzanne, with eternal gratitude. iii Table of Contents. Prolegomena Page 1 Section 1 – God & Violence. 1.1 The Problem 8 1.2 Religious Use & Understanding of Violence 11 1.2.1 Persuasion & Coercion 12 1.2.1.1 The ‘Violence’ of Conversion 12 1.3 Jesus as a Model 14 1.3.1 Jesus & Confrontation 15 1.4 The Possibility of Divine Violence 16 1.4.1 Ancient Near Eastern Context 17 1.4.1.1 The Chronology of Evil 19 1.4.2 The Divine, Evil & Ontology 20 1.5 Knowing God 23 1.5.1 Relationship with God 25 1.6 Divine Attributes 26 1.6.1 Aposiopesis 27 1.6.1.1 The Deeper Essence 28 1.6.2 God’s Personhood 29 1.6.2.1 Thinking & Speaking 32 1.7 Disturbing Divine Behaviour 33 1.7.1 A Priori Agendas 34 1.7.1.1 Feuerbach’s Projections 35 1.7.1.2 Wisdom’s Parable 37 1.7.2 Responding to Violent Accusations 38 1.7.2.1 Unacceptable Ascriptions 40 1.7.3 God’s Wrath 41 iv 1.7.3.1 Anthropocentric Outlooks 43 1.7.4 Necessary Violence 44 1.7.5 Orthodox Perspectives 46 Section 2 – Biblical Violence 2.1 Old Testament Violence 47 2.1.1 Types of Violence 49 2.1.2 Abrahamic Violence 50 2.1.3 The Divine Warrior 52 2.1.4 Divine Genocide 56 2.1.4.1 The Flood 57 2.1.4.2 Sodom & Gomorrah 63 2.1.4.2.1 The Spectre of Infanticide 65 2.1.4.2.2 God’s Appropriate Response? 66 The Ban. 68 - ֵה ֶרמ 2.1.5 2.1.5.1 Etymology of the Ban 68 2.1.5.2 Applications of the Ban 70 2.1.5.3 Holy War & the Ban 71 2.1.5.4 The Ban at Jericho 73 2.1.6 Conclusion 75 2.2 New Testament Violence 76 2.2.1 The Violent Cross 77 2.2.1.2 God’s Hospitality 79 2.2.2 The Temple Incident 80 2.2.3 Eschatological Violence 90 2.2.3.1 Revelation Chapter 14 91 2.2.3.1.1 The Grapes of Wrath 92 2.2.3.1.2 The Shedding of Blood 94 2.2.3.1.3 Two Sides of the Same Coin 94 2.3 The Satan & the Demonic Realm 96 2.3.1 Biblical Background 97 2.3.2 Diobolic Definition 102 2.3.2.1 Diabolic Theology 103 v 2.3.3 Modern Understanding: Satanic Personhood 107 2.3.3.1 Seeking the Via Media 110 2.3.4 A Cosmic Power-Encounter: The Great Battle 112 2.3.5 Divine Violence against the Satan 116 2.3.6 Decisions on the Devil 118 Section 3 – Metaphor & Models 3.1 Penal Substitution – Judicial Violence 122 3.2 Moral Influence – Denied Violence 126 3.3 Christus Victor – Cosmological Violence 131 3.4 Ransom Christus Victor – Deceitful Violence 137 3.5 The Use of Metaphor 141 3.5.1 The Primacy of Metaphor 143 3.5.2 Explicating Reality 145 3.5.3 Soteriological Metaphors 148 3.5.4 Closing the Epistemic Gap 152 3.6 God & Metaphor 154 3.6.1 Pushing Too Far… 155 3.6.2 Cultic & Ritual Metaphors 156 3.6.3 The Poetry of Metaphor 157 3.6.3.1 The Limitations of Language 158 3.6.4 Anthropomorphism 159 vi Section 4 – Scholars on Violence 4.1 Rudolf Otto 160 4.1.1 Palatable Attributes 162 4.1.2 The Numinous 163 4.1.2.1 Numinous Wrath 165 4.1.3 The Sublime 165 4.2 René Girard 166 4.2.1 Doubles Theory 168 4.2.2 Mimesis 169 4.2.3 Violence 171 4.2.4 Scapegoat 171 4.2.5 Sacrifice 173 4.2.6 Theory Conclusion 174 4.3 Nicholas Wolterstorff 176 4.3.1 Love on God’s Own Terms 177 4.3.2 Lex Talionis 177 4.3.3 Diminution of Wellbeing 178 4.3.4 Promoting ‘Life-Goods’ 180 Section 5 – The Primacy of the Christus Victor Model. 5.1 Revisiting Christus Victor 181 5.1.1 Breaking with Tradition 184 5.1.2 Atonement & Violence 186 5.2 A Cosmic & Ontological Model 188 5.3 A Violent, Dramatic & Holistic Model 191 Final Conclusion. 195 vii Prolegomena.1 This thesis is about God, atonement, divine violence and the demythologisation of Christian views of the Satan and the demonic realm. On the latter, Girard notes that in the period when the German theologian Rudolf Bultmann had such great influence, all the theologians who were up to date “demythologized” the Scriptures with all their might but, he adds, they did not even do the prince of this world the honour of demythologizing him.2 On the contrary, this desire to demythologize is not so prevalent today with other previously dark entities instead subsumed into the modern consciousness via their adaptation from mysterious and evil to scientific. Hjelm takes the concept of ‘vampire’ and examines its new and old paradigms in film observing that the move of the vampire away from the demonic and towards the scientific—a worldview ironically rejected only by the most hardcore fundamentalists of any religion—can be seen as an outcome of the sensitivity that a religiously and spiritually pluralistic culture engenders.3 The vampire presented as an evil, demonic being, only to be confronted and defeated by the forces of good manifest in either the cross or a religious representative is now perceived as one suffering from various explicable conditions and faced with a nemesis armed with technological devices. Evil not demythologized, but rather re-presented and enculturated in postmodern forms. The conjoining of evil and postmodernity often causes societal and theological consternation; indeed, in his speculation upon what postmodern society might exclude from conversation, for example, Wink concludes, Certainly not sex; at least in the more ‘sophisticated’ circles accounts of sexual exploits scarcely raise an eyebrow. But if you want to bring all talk to a halt in shocked embarrassment, every eye riveted on you, try mentioning angels, or demons, or the devil. 1 Pannenberg asserts that, “In the presentation of a theme there is nothing unusual about postponing the actual treatment in favour (sic) of a few preliminary remarks on the theme itself and the mode of presentation.” W. Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume 1, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988, 26-27. He cites various presentations of Christian doctrine which begin with introductory observations, including the Prologue of Lombard’s Sentences, the first quaestio of the theological Summa of Aquinas and Melanchthon’s introductions to his Loci communes and his Loci praecipui theologici. We will do likewise. 2 R. Girard, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999, 32. 3 T. Hjelm, ‘Celluloid Vampires, Scientization, and the Decline of Religion’, C. Partridge and E. Christianson (eds.), The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture, London: Equinox, 2009, 105-121, 119. 1 You will be quickly appraised for signs of pathological violence and then quietly shunned.4 In case Wink’s observations appear dated it should be noted that in more recent times various invisible and visible forces, or monsters have become part of the postmodern vista and its parlance.