A Critical Analysis of Some Views on Atonement Doctrine

• Main Authors: Abdoolrasool Kashfi, Siyavash Asadi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2011-09-01
• Series: Comparative Theology
• Subjects: Atonement Doctrine; Sin; Ransom Theory; Moral Exemplar Theory; Satisfaction Theory .
• Online Access: http://uijs.ui.ac.ir/coth/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-21&slc_lang=en&sid=1

  On the basis of "Atonement doctrine", Christ’s severe suffering and sacrificial death led to God’s forgiveness of mankind’s sins . There are several theories on this doctrine, the most important of which are three: “Ransom Theory”, “Moral Exemplar Theory”, and “Satisfaction Theory”. This paper presents a brief introduction to these theories and a critical consideration of challenges and answers to them. To this aim, this paper considers the answers of Thomas Aquinas, Philip Quinn and Richard Swinburne. The paper shows that the Atonement doctrine cannot be logically defended and each of the answers to its difficulties causes new challenges and antinomies. Nevertheless, the Swinburne’s theory has less difficulties than the others, although it also cannot answer to some important questions .