Sacrifice and Atonement: Psychological Motives and Biblical Patterns by Stephen Finlan

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sacrifice and Atonement: Psychological Motives and Biblical Patterns by Stephen Finlan Barbara E. Reid stephen finlan, Sacrifice and Atonement: Psychological Motives and Biblical Patterns (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016). Pp. xx + 234. Paper $39. In the last several decades, a number of theologians and biblical scholars have examined theologies of atonement and the images of God that underlie them and their deleterious effects. Finlan has tackled this topic in two previous volumes: The Background and Content of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors (Academia Biblica 19; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004) and Problems with Atonement: The Origins of, and Controversy about, the Atonement Doctrine (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005). Now he explores psychological theories to uncover why atonement is so compelling. He sees a relationship between the way we think about God and the ways we learned to think about our parents: "atonement theology is largely based on childhood strategies for satisfying moody and explosive parents by 'paying for' infractions (or having someone else pay for them)" (p. xvi). In the first two chapters, F. studies the functions of sacrifice in the OT. He then explores psychological theories of attachment and his own theory about payment through suffering. In chaps. 4–6, he turns to Paul and Hebrews, which contain the most material on atonement. The final chapter traces the development of atonement concepts in Christian history. In his conclusion, F. proposes that the way we can understand "Christ died for all humanity" is not that God was "paid off, soothed, or mollified, or that sin was magically cleansed and deported" (p. 185). He "died for us" in the same way he lived for us: healing, teaching, and creating a community of love: "His death was part of his continuous revelation of God" (p. 187). I find much of F.'s work very helpful. He is right to expose the dangers of atonement thinking that extols God's power and goodness while at the same time presenting "a sacrifice-demanding God who is not free to forgive" (p. 188). Further, it is helpful to understand the psychological underpinnings of atonement, although I would not claim to be competent to assess F.'s use of psychology. F.'s exegetical work with the Pauline texts is his strongest section and showcases his area of expertise. His analysis of the OT on sacrifice and purity and his assertions about Jesus's approach to these systems, however, need far more nuance. For instance, F. delineates the functions of ritual and of purity systems: restoring order, solidifying a group and its values, identifying a society and helping to bind it together, and helping the human mind make distinctions and define and enforce boundaries. But then he would seem to regard these functions as completely detrimental and attributes a totally critical attitude to Jesus with statements such as: "the socialized religious mentality is stifling to those who seek justice or truth beyond conventional habits and beliefs. … Jesus seems to have been profoundly ill at ease with purity boundaries as is shown by his arguing with purity rules, and his disrupting the sacrificial trade at the temple" (p. 8). What of the instance where Jesus tells a man he healed of leprosy to show himself to the priest and make an offering for his cleansing (Mark 1:44; similarly the ten lepers in Luke 17:14)? When F. does mention these texts, he curiously remarks that Jesus is never infected by the impurity of the unclean people he heals and that "such recipients of healing would not think of purification as a ritual category so much as a Jesus category, because of what he did for them" (p. 12; italics original). Such an assertion falsely divorces Jesus from Judaism and is unhelpful to F'.s argument. F. rightly refers to important works that have [End Page 333] been done on sacrifice and purity in recent years, but he does not seem to be familiar with the carefully nuanced work of John P. Meier in Law and Love, the fourth volume of his A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (ABRL [vols. 1–3]; AYBRL [vols. 4–5]; New York: Doubleday, 1991–2008 [vols. 1–3]; New Haven...