Violence and the Cross: The Affinity Between Theories of Atonement and Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace

Abstract

There is an affinity between Christian responses to war and peace and doctrines of atonement such that certain models of the atonement tend to correspond more closely with particular views of the legitimacy of violence. Generally speaking, in Christian theology, there are three predominant views of the legitimacy of violence: just war theory, crusade/holy war, and pacifism/nonviolent resistance. Moreover, Christian theology offers three predominant models of the atonement: the Christus Victor model, the Satisfaction model, and the Moral Influence model. An examination of the work of Reinhold Niebuhr and J. Denny Weaver demonstrates how this affinity works with respect to the Satisfaction model of atonement and just war theory on the one hand and a modified version of the Christus Victor model and nonviolent resistance on the other hand.