“Therapeutic” Atonement? A Psychological Paradigm of the Cross in Dialogue with Martin Luther

Abstract

This study contributes to theological dialogue on the nature of atonement by sketching a “therapeutic” model—that is, a model focused on the healing of our specifically psychological relationship to God. Martin Luther serves as the principal interlocutor. This essay suggests that his 1531/35 Lectures on Galatians represent a unique perspective on the atonement of Christ, summed up in Luther's strange and striking description of “Christ's combat with the Law.” Through an analysis of Luther's language throughout these Galatians lectures, I demonstrate that his overriding focus is on the inner and affective world of the believer—the world of memory, reflection, and emotion—and, most uniquely for christological doctrine, how Christ enters into these and mends their distortionary orientation to the divine. Such a “psychological” repair effectuated by Christ is a dimension of what this study terms “therapeutic atonement.”