Gustaf Aulén

“First, we must ask in what relation the conceptions of sin and death stand to one another in Irenæus. We have already noted the assertion that he, in common with other Eastern theologians, places relatively little emphasis on sin, because he regards salvation as a bestowal of life rather than of forgiveness, and as a victory over mortality rather than over sin.”
― Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor

“This brings us back to the first of our five points, the structure of the three types of teaching. The classic type showed us the Atonement as a movement of God to man, and God as closely and personally engaged in the work of man’s deliverance. In the Latin type God seems to stand more at a distance; for the satisfaction is paid by man, in the person of Christ, to God. In the third type God stands still more at a distance; as far as He is concerned, no atonement is needed, and all the emphasis is on man’s movement to God, on that which is accomplished in the world of men. That is to say, the essential Christian idea of a way of God to man, which dominates the classic type, is weakened in the Latin type, and lost in the subjective type, in the measure that its leading idea is consistently carried out.”
― Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor