# Non-Violent Atonement???



## DMcFadden (Apr 2, 2008)

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross” (H. Richard Niebuhr) 

One of the truly great summaries of liberal Protestantism in the last century, Niebuhr’s quote has found new currency in the present church environment. A group called Preaching Peace (Preaching Peace) has taken on the task of holistically reconceptualizing Christian theology in light of the insights of Rene Girard, the French anthropological philosopher, and the application of his “mimetic theory” or the observation that human desire and behavior involves deep levels of imitation. Essentially, we borrow our desires from others and engage in mythic imitation throughout history.

Girard’s 1972 book, _Violence and the Sacred _developed Girard’s “second great insight: “the victimary process, which is at the origin of archaic religion.” In Girard’s thinking, the Gospels offer a typical mythical account with “a victim-god lynched by a unanimous crowd.” However, unlike the normal myth, this one proclaims the innocence of the victim. 

In Preaching Peace’s perspective, the Gospels appear to present themselves as a typical mythical account, with a victim-god lynched by a unanimous crowd, an event that is then commemorated by Christians through ritual sacrifice — symbolic in this case — in the Eucharist. Yet the parallel is perfect except for one detail: the truth of the innocence of the victim is proclaimed by the text and the writer.

For the Preaching Peace group, peace is a hermeneutic. When Jesus said, “Peace I give to you,” they see this as exposing “all of our theologies and faiths and religions where we fail to see that Peace is . . . an interpretive choice.” 

Applied to the cross of Christ, the Preaching Peace folks want to strip away all of the violence-saturated language of Christian theology (getting rid of the shadow of Augustine and Eusebius) and apply the insights of Girard and the “hermeneutic of peace” to understanding it. 

Take Romans 3:25, for instance. Paul says God presented Jesus to be the “propitiation for our sins.” Unlike other words for forgiveness which refer to wiping clean the slate or remitting sin, propitiation (hilastarion) has been understood as assuaging the righteous wrath of a holy God against sin. Jesus’ death satisfied God’s righteous anger or made him “propitious.” 

The Preaching Peace view asks the questions: “Does Jesus reveal God's love for us, or placate God's wrath towards us? And doesn't this way of thinking presuppose that you can attain a good, loving result through violence? Does the end justify the violent means? Isn't this the sort of thinking that has fueled the endless cycle of violence that's characterized human history?” 

In the last century, liberal Protestantism got around the cross by seeing the ministry of Christ as exemplary of divine love. Now, we have a sophisticated anthropological analysis of human history being used to empty the cross of any meaning other than a pyrrhic victory over violence through innocent suffering. And, major denominational groups are promoting the "non-violent atonement" seminars, enthusiastically endorsed by Brian McLaren and other members of the emerging church.

Before I overturn Paul, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Owen, Edwards, and a host of Christian heroes, I will need more than Girard’s musings about mimetics. It's almost enough to make one want to echo the Apostle Paul: "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" 1 Corinthians 2:2 (HCSB).


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## Herald (Apr 2, 2008)

> In the last century, liberal Protestantism got around the cross by seeing the ministry of Christ as exemplary of divine love. Now, we have a sophisticated anthropological analysis of human history being used to empty the cross of any meaning other than a pyrrhic victory over violence through innocent suffering. And, major denominational groups are promoting the "non-violent atonement" seminars, enthusiastically endorsed by Brian McLaren and other members of the emerging church.



The Quakers.


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## DMcFadden (Apr 2, 2008)

Evidently the Bible of the Preaching Peace crowd is *Stricken by God? - Nonviolent Identification & The Victory of Christ*. Co-edited by Michael Hardin, *Stricken by God?* contains twenty essays (over 500 pages) from authors like N.T. Wright, James Alison, Rowan Williams, Richard Rohr, Marcus Borg and includes essays by Michael Hardin, J. Denny Weaver, Tony Bartlett and Sharon Baker.

Brain McLaren, doyen of the emergent movement writes, "I am thrilled with Stricken by God? It is a highly important contribution at a critical time. I will refer to it often and recommend it widely."


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## ColdSilverMoon (Apr 2, 2008)

DMcFadden said:


> Girard’s 1972 book, _Violence and the Sacred _developed Girard’s “second great insight: “the victimary process, which is at the origin of archaic religion.” In Girard’s thinking, the Gospels offer a typical mythical account with “a victim-god lynched by a unanimous crowd.” However, unlike the normal myth, this one proclaims the innocence of the victim.



And unlike myths, Jesus claimed to BE God, not just a prophet pointing the way to God...


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## etexas (Apr 2, 2008)

DMcFadden said:


> “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross” (H. Richard Niebuhr)
> 
> One of the truly great summaries of liberal Protestantism in the last century, Niebuhr’s quote has found new currency in the present church environment. A group called Preaching Peace (Preaching Peace) has taken on the task of holistically reconceptualizing Christian theology in light of the insights of Rene Girard, the French anthropological philosopher, and the application of his “mimetic theory” or the observation that human desire and behavior involves deep levels of imitation. Essentially, we borrow our desires from others and engage in mythic imitation throughout history.
> 
> ...


It is interesting to note that Germany and her churches were among the first to develop the Liberal School of thought that we now call Classic Liberalism, look where it got them.


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## Simply_Nikki (Apr 2, 2008)

*sigh* 

3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude 3-4


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## DMcFadden (Apr 2, 2008)

This kind of stuff dove tails with the line that the atonement was "cosmic child abuse."
Steve Chalke has generally been credited with coining the phrase:



> The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement: ‘God is love’. If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus' own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil.” (Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus, [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003], pp. 182-183)



But Brian McLaren has used the term as well. He puts it on the lips of one of his characters in one of his books and has reportedly affirmed that this was his notion, that he thought that the idea that Jesus died for my sins, that God punished Jesus, was an example of "cosmic child abuse."

Oh my! The recent White Horse Inn dealing with the doctrine of penal substitution caused me to perk up when reading this Preaching Peace stuff. Promos for the non-violent atonement conferences is being distributed (and pushed) by the Ministers Council of my former denomination. They are seriously trying to get working pastors to come to these things!!!

Let me quote from author


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