The Nonviolent Atonement

by J. Denny Weaver

This challenging work explores the history of the Christian doctrine of atonement, exposing the intrinsically violent dimensions of the traditional, Anselmian satisfaction atonement view and offering instead a new, thoroughly nonviolent paradigm for understanding atonement based on narrative Christus Victor.

The book develops a two-part argument. J. Denny Weaver first develops narrative Christus Victor as a comprehensive, nonviolent atonement motif. The other side of the discussion exposes the assumptions and the accommodation of violence in traditional atonement motifs.

The first chapter lays out narrative Christus Victor as nonviolent atonement that reflects the entire biblical story, though paying particular attention to Revelation, the Gospels, and Paul. This biblical discussion also touches on the Old Testament story, Hebrew sacrifices, and the book of Hebrews. Following chapters place narrative Christus Victor in conversation with defenders of Anselm and with representatives of black, feminist, and womanist theologies. These discussions expose an accumulation of dimensions of violence in the several forms of satisfaction atonement.

A final substantive chapter analyzes the inadequacy of all attempts to defend Anselm against the recent challenges raised by feminist and womanist perspectives. This analysis lays bare the violent dimensions of satisfaction atonement, which can be camouflaged but not removed. In light of this discussion, Weaver argues that the view of satisfaction atonement must be abandoned and replaced with narrative Christus Victor as the only thoroughly biblical and thoroughly nonviolent alternative.

A provocative study that cuts to the very heart of Christian thought, The Nonviolent Atonement will be of interest to scholars, students, and pastors.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Nonfiction, Christian, Christianity, Faith, College

362 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

J. Denny Weaver is Professor Emeritus at Bluffton University where he taught for 31 years. He continues as editor of The C. Henry Smith Series. His most recent books include The Nonviolent Atonement, 2nd edition, and the co-authored Defenseless Christianity: Anabaptism for a Nonviolent Church. His many articles and chapters in edited books as well as speaking engagements address a variety of topics related to nonviolence, violence in traditional theology, atonement theology, the character of God, violence in society, and Anabaptist history and theology. He has lectured in the United Kingdom, the Congo, and in Germany.

Reviews

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atonement is a word that theologians use to describe how humans can be "at one with" God. For the Christian religion it includes tying it to the death of Jesus and explaining how it can provide spiritual salvation. The various theories of atonement that have been developed over the past two thousand years have been human endeavors at providing a rationalization as to why the execution of Jesus as a criminal has significance for Christian believers.

In this book the author, J Denny Weaver, proposes an atonement theory to which he gives the name “narrative Christus Victor”. It is an approach more consistent with the narrative descriptions of the teachings of Jesus contained in the New Testament than is the theory that has prevailed since the year 1100 when Anselm’s satisfaction theory of atonement was published in his Cur Deus Homo.

Anselm developed his satisfaction atonement in order to replace the then prevailing view that Christ's death was a ransom payment that God owed to the devil. This ransom theory is the classic Christus Victor and most theologians didn't like the emphasis on the power of the devil to interact with God as an equal.

The problem with Anselm’s satisfaction theory of atonement is that it is based on the idea of retributive violence. Christians are not supposed to practice retributive violence so why must God? Isn’t it strange that a God who sent his Son to teach “love your enemies” is incapable (as described by Anselm) of simply forgiving sins without the use of retributive violence? However, the satisfaction theory of atonement was widely accepted by the Christian church during the medieval era because it was compatible with a state church that was part of the government that needed to use "the sword" to maintain social order.

Abelard came along a few years after Anselm with his moral influence theory of atonement in an effort to avoid the retributive aspects of the satisfaction theory. But the death of Jesus still has aspects of divine child abuse in the exercise of moral influence in Abelard's theory. With the devil missing from the equation it's hard to explain why the death of Jesus was needed. Also, narrative Christus Victor differs from the moral influence atonement by envisioning changes other than an impact on the mind of the sinner by envisioning a change in the spiritual universe symbolized by Christ's resurrection.

Narrative Christus Victor puts a devil of sorts back into the equation again as was the case for classic Christus Victor. But the devil in narrative Christus Victor is in the form of the very tangible and real principalities and powers of this world that are opposed to God's kingdom. The post-Constantine state church of the Medieval era could not recognize this definition of the devil because they themselves were the principalities and powers.

In Weaver’s narrative Christus Victor there is no need to explain why God required that Jesus die:

“In narrative Christus Victor, the cause of Jesus’ death is obviously not God. ... Rather, in narrative Christus Victor the Son is carrying out the father’s will by making the reign of God visible in the world — and that mission is so threatening to the world that sinful human beings and the accumulation of evil they represent conspire to kill Jesus. Jesus came not to die but to live, to witness to the reign of god in human history. While he may have known that carrying out that mission would provoke inevitably fatal opposition his purpose was not to get himself killed. ... Jesus depicted in narrative Christus Victor is no passive victim. He is an active participant in confronting evil. Salvation happens when or because Jesus carried out his mission to make the reign of God visible. His saving life shows how the reign of god confronts evil, and is thus our model for confronting injustice. While we do not save, we participate in salvation and in Jesus’ saving work when we join in the reign of God and live the way Jesus lived. ... It means actively confronting injustice, and in that confrontation we continue with Jesus to make the rule of God visible in a world where evil still has sway. “ (p.211-212)

Weaver deliberately builds his narrative Christus Victor model by careful examination of scriptures and history -- Revelation, the Gospels, letters of the apostle Paul, Old Testament sacrifice traditions, the book of Hebrews, and Israel's history. In summary Weaver says:

"Seeing narrative Christus Victor in this long historical context underscores how completely outside of history satisfaction atonement is. In fact, satisfaction atonement appears to reduce the life of Jesus to an elaborate scheme whose purpose was to produce his death. Narrative Christus Victor is a way of reading the entire history of God's people, with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the culminating revelation of the reign of God in history, whereas the various versions of satisfaction atonement concern a legal construct or an abstract formula that functions outside of and apart from history. Seeing the long historical context of narrative Christus Victor underscores the extent to which satisfaction atonement is separated from ethical involvements and allows oppression to continue without challenge." (p.69)

Narrative Christus Victor is compatible with much of René Girard's theory about mimetic violence and its implications for understanding the death of Jesus and atonement theology. Narrative Christus Victor also stands in continuity with, but differs significantly from, the classic view of Christus Victor described by Gustaf Aulén, and it bears little resemblance to the Christus Victor rejected by Feminist Theology.

Weaver includes chapters in his book explaining how narrative Christus Victor addresses the concerns of and is compatible with "Black Theology on atonement", "Feminist Theology on Atonement", and "Womanist Theology of Atonement." Much of Christian theology, classic atonement images, and christological terminology have accommodated violence of the sword, slavery, racism, and violence against women. Even though Weaver originally developed narrative Christus Victor model to reflect a nonviolent ethic for Christian living, he demonstrates that it fits well with the concerns of oppressed people.

This book has a chapter near its end titled,"Conversation with Anselm and His Defenders." A number of theologians have tried to respond to the criticisms of satisfaction atonement that have been expressed by feminist and womanist writers. The defenders have generally responded in one of three ways: (1) Rehabilitate the ideas of punishment and vicarious suffering, (2) Shift emphasis away from punishment by recovering additional themes and emphases within satisfaction that have been covered over by too much stress on punishment, and (3) Acknowledge the validity of the critique of punishment by blaming the excesses on Protestant reformers such as John Calvin. Weaver concludes that none of the defenses are adequate or convincing.

J. Denny Weaver also wrote another book titled, The Nonviolent God . It is sort of a sequel to this book by broadening the scope of discussion about the nature of God.

It is interesting to note that the word “atonement“ is not in the King James version of the New Testament (however it is in the Old Testament, Leviticus 17:11).

A book has been published recently by Ted Grimsrud titled, “Instead of Atonement: The Bible’s Salvation Story and Our Hope for Wholeness”. I’m under the impression that it may have some similarities to Weaver's book. But the title sounds more anti-atonement, whereas Weaver's book is more rehab-atonement. Frankly, I'm not all that excited about atonement theory, so anti-atonement sounds pretty good to me.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I meant to read this book shortly after it came out a decade ago. At the time I was reading a lot of theology and firming up my views about a lot of things. Actually, changing my views -- becoming a pacifist, for instance.

Changing atonement views was an important part of this process. Through my reading of other theologians -- Cone, Moltmann, McClendon, Yoder, Hauerwas, various feminists, etc. -- and in dialogue with friends, my views of the atonement shifted to embrace the ideas expressed in this book (I remember a great atonement conversation with Greg Horton and Tim Youmans while we were sitting around at Camp Hudgens one autumn). So, reading this was more to fulfill an obligation long outstanding (one reason I hadn't read the book is because I felt it expressed what I had already come to). This was a nice affirmation then.

Note: I did have another period of fermentation on the atonement one winter/spring when I read Walter Wink's Powers That Be and Brock & Parker's Proverbs of Ashes. The adult ed committee at First Central has requested that I lead a class on the atonement sometime in 2012.

In this book Weaver defends a narrative Christus Victor model, exposes many flaws in satisfaction theories and their recent defenders, and engages in a nice dialogue with black, feminist, and womanist theologies (a chapter on queer theologies would be nice -- maybe that is in the newly released second edition? I haven't seen it yet).

The dialogue with and summary of black, feminist, and womanist perspectives is the richest part of the book, showing nice connections with the peace church perspective that Weaver comes from.

This is the theology that I preach and practice. I have found it very accommodating to ministry in the 21st century. I worked out many elements of it while pastoring a CoH-OKC, a place deeply rooted in liberation theology and the eschatological vision of hope (at least I was eschatological in my approach).

Jesus reveals the way of God and is killed by the powers-that-be. His resurrection is God's endorsement of this way of life, victory over the powers, a sign of God's intention for creation, an act of new creation, and more. We are saved by our imitation of and participation in the new creation through living as a disciple of Jesus. This means living in solidarity with the oppressed, working for justice and peace, and living as if the kingdom fullness were now. Greg's phrase -- "If this is how we shall live, then this is how we must live."

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most people agree that Jesus taught non-violence. In light of the scriptural evidence, it's hard to deny. Why then has the Christian church accepted a redemption motif that requires God to inflict violence on Godself in the form of Jesus to set the world right? And how has this justified Christians being involved in warfare and other forms of violence in society? Mennonite theologian J. Denny Weaver tackles those questions and more in this excellent book.

Weaver gives a brief history of the three major atonement theologies: Christus Victor, satisfaction atonement and moral influence atonement. The first was prevalent in the early centuries of the Christian movement, while the latter two came into popularity in the middle ages. Weaver demonstrates how each motif was influenced not only by Christian teaching and history, but by the political and social forces of the day.

Weaver then presents a new atonement theory, narrative Christus Victor, which allows for Jesus' non-violence to be more readily understood in light of his violent death. In narrative Christus Victor, the atonement starts with the Incarnation, not the Crucifixion, and has more to do with God's Kingdom being revealed and begun, on Earth as it is in Heaven. There is nothing penal or substitutionary about Christ's death, thus the violence - although inevitable - is not a product of God but of sinful humans. And the violence is not necessary for human redemption, but Christ's obedience, even unto death, and his resurrection, show God's sovereignty over the powers of this world. Weaver works backwards from the book of Revelation to the Old Testament to show how this atonement theory syncs with the entire narrative arc of the Christian faith.

This description of narrative Christus Victor takes up maybe a third of the book. The rest is dedicated to engaging with other theologies and theological strands. Weaver shows how narrative Christus Victor actually allies with threads such as black theology, feminist theology and womanist theology. He also dialogues with some of his detractors and other theologians, finding places of congruence, but also pointing out where he sees disagreements between his ideas and others.

This is a very high-level overview and I am positive that I have not done Weaver's book or thought justice in this brief synopsis. He is building on the work of other theologians I admire such as John Howard Yoder and Walter Wink. Reading this book felt like a homecoming to a place I had never been. I have long thought that there must be a better answer to the atonement than the theories with which I was raised and Weaver has provided way forward.

I strongly encourage anyone who has found the violent death of Jesus to be a sticking place in their faith to read this book. I think a lot will become clearer in studying Weaver's arguments - both about why we have the atonement theories we do and also about possible alternatives.

I would give this book five stars on the content alone, but I backed it off a star due to the scholarly and slightly pedantic tone. That tone reduces the readability a bit, especially for a layperson. But this is still an important book, especially for recovering fundamentalists such as me.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly readable, nor particularly persuasive.

[Dave Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Nonviolent Atonement, Weaver basically makes two fundamental assertions about the problem of modern theological, Western thought, and one fundamental argument about the solution to the problem.

The problem we face in Western thought is this twofold assertion- in the shift from the once dominant Christus Victor model towards satisfaction atonement theories predominant in the West, assumptions of a necessary violence essentially became so common place that to challenge it is to challenge salvation itself. And yet, as Weaver does such a wonderful job outlining, satisfaction itself grew not out of scripture but out of the violence of a Church that eventually became synonymous with the political powers. The setting and context that influenced Anselm and the subsequent theories that would follow, were drenched not only in violent rhetoric, but an assumption of violence. In later years, as this became married to particular ideas of the justice system itself, and even more particularly the American justice system, the development of a systematic allegiance to violence, the language of violence, the necessity of violence, became so common place that it has been able to hide behind attempts of different pr0ponanets and adherents to satisfaction atonement to necessarily smooth out its rough edges to make it more palpable to modern ears.

And yet it is the still the same language born from an older age of feudal systems, political powers, honor-shame systems, and glorified violence.

Which leads to the second assertion which is that in this shift from Christus Victor to satisfaction atonement theories, the richness and wealth of the Christian message, Christian mission, Kingdom participation, and the resurrection became lost in the shuffle. While proponents of satisfaction theories will never admit this, these now dominant theories in the West essentially funneled the notion of salvation away from a more holistic picture and into a narrow view of the Cross and individualism. Salvation became all about the death as a necessary payment for our sin as the fundamental means of salvation, while everything else essentially became a footnote. A separate theological statement and interest.

The solution, Weaver argues, is also two fold- a necessary return to the ancient Tradition of the faith and its emphasis on Christus Victor as the dominant motif for the audience and writers of scripture, the early Church, and early Tradition. And secondly, what he proposes is actually a reformatting of Christus Victor itself to more accurately express and capture the ancient context in our modern setting. He terms this Narrative Christus Victor, a theory that essentially sets us in line with the ancients in terms of being immersed in a larger story that continues to play out in a larger and ongoing context.

Narrative Christus Victor, if nothing else, and to be sure it has a good deal of interest beyond this, is interested in bringing the Resurrection back into the language of the Cross as a way of emphasizing salvation and the Gospel as an ethically concerned movement from God to us and us to God in relationship.

The structure is fairly simple. The early going sets up and diagnoses the problem, which shockingly includes a necessary treaties on why the notion of violence in the discussion of salvation is and should be an issue, and then begins to establish the fundamental positions and concerns of Narrative Christus Victor.

Given it's ethical concern, the book then begins to set that in the light of the black voice, the woman's voice, and the voice of the oppressed. This does not do the book justice, but if I could simply what Weaver is suggesting, much of he writes is born out of this very basic assumption that if you apply the narrow vision of satisfaction atonement to the places where Sin actually affects, those who are oppressed, you end up not only with a Gospel that makes no sense, but a Gospel that does far more harm than good. One of the things that satisfaction atonement did was remove salvation from its liberating context, the once dominant context of the Exodus story. This relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor, simply does not have representation in satisfaction atonement, and in fact satisfaction atonement has been used throughout history to effectively marginalize the oppressed. It's original context was born out of this very idea of a Church having power over the weak.

In essence, what satisfaction atonement did was erase the third agency (the Powers, Satan, the evil one, the principalities), so dominant in the pages of scripture and the early community, from the picture. It turned the transaction entirely over to the God-human equation where God can only redeem through necessary violence and humanity can only be forgiven through a necessary payment of satisfaction. What we lose in the process is most of the Christian story. And what further complicates this is that when proponents of this theory end up finding their way back into the richness of the Christian story, it is with this violent picture in tow. This reformats entire readings of the narrative into something that they never were in their original context, Westernizing the scriptural message over against the entities that Western society has held power over for centuries.

In the latter sections of the book, after dealing with the relationship of scripture to this oppressed-oppressor language, Weaver then spends a good deal of time setting Narrative Christus Victor and the dominant arguments for and against Satisfaction Theories. In doing this Weaver narrows in on the main ideas by bringing the main voices of ST to the forefront, including a healthy cross section of it's diverse expressions. He does a good deal of work to set everything on the table and to give everything a fair representation, and does so without demonizing the writers but rather teasing out where this intersection of violence and non-violence meets. And then lastly he spends time bringing a selection of modern voices to the table who have been engaged in similar work as his own, attempting to reclaim Christus Victor but in a way that also makes sense for scriptures contextualizing voice in our modern context. It all ends up creating a beautiful tapestry.

If there is one essential difference between Christus Victor and Narrative Christus Victor that is worth isolating and noting, it would be the idea that Weaver presents of the death of Jesus not being God's directive, God's plan. Rather, Weaver argues, using scripture, Tradition, philosophy and experience, that God's plan was establishing the Kingdom. The death comes at the hands of the Powers, which is not solely a spiritualized idea of the principalities but an actualized idea in scripture of empire. The obedience of Jesus to death becomes the necessary way to fulfill God's faithful plan of establishing the heavenly Kingdom on earth. The death then was not God's necessary payment and appeasement to satisfy a need for punishment.

On this train of thought, one of the most fundamental problems of satisfactions ambiguous treatment of sin and punishment, which assumes a transactional premise that simply does not and cannot apply universally, especially when you try to pair it with the dominant metaphors and pictures of scripture itself, is the idea that we are saved by a single event but caught up in a three tier reality. One, we are born into a world under bondage. Two, we are held responsible and given a payment of death based on individual sin, regardless of how that sin expresses itself. This is true whether we are speaking of murder or the lust of the heart. Different adherents to satisfaction atonement respond to this in different ways, from total depravity to moral theories. But it still remains a problem when applying this theory from its individualized context to a collective one.

And then we have the component which says that not only is the penalty physical death, but also the inevitable sentence to hell on earth. In the language of violence, we are all responsible for individual sin, all oppressed by collective sin, and all ultimately judged to death by the divine hand as just payment/punishment while also being punished in the here and now as the natural or divinely given consequence, depending on how you see that, in the here and now.

And even then still. The only way for satisfaction theory to work is for justice to ultimately be payed in a second death The raising up of the already dead to be killed again or sentenced to eternal punishment, depending on your view, as just punishment.

In all these capacities, be it theologies of creation, of our life in the here and now, of the ministry of Jesus, of resurrection, of the new heavens and the new earth, it all is forced to be read through the language of consistent and perpetuated violence in order to be upheld and to work, and usually at the ignorance of social justice and oppression that exists around us. The only way the message works when brought into a context of oppression is for it to say that person already suffering at the hands of oppression that this oppression is God's directive, that the solution is for them to recognize their own sinfulness and their own judgment that must be death, and their belief in a Cross that satisfied that need as a necessary payment on their behalf. Thus liberating them. To what? Well, often that liberation has nothing to do with the oppression, but rather eternal life with God.

In Narrative Christus Victor, by seeing the death on the Cross not as God's doing but as the response of the Powers, the empire, we are able to reformat discussions of sin and salvation and the ministry and obedience of Christ into a broader context. We are able to see it not simply as a spiritualized idea, but a real and actualized idea being made known in the world that we occupy, that we believe the Spirit occupies with us and is redeeming. The work of God becomes not one of necessary and just violence, but of a resistance to the violence that holds us bondage. A reclaiming of the truth of God's Kingdom and the way of this Kingdom building. And in Christ's response to the Cross, His faithful obedience, we then find the measure and means of knowing how to respond to this violence ourselves, particularly in the broader lens of Jesus' whole ministry.

This is probably the most radical idea in the book. But once you start to recognize and hear the notes of this idea written into the larger arguments and discussions of the book, it actually begins to transform scripture and Tradition and experience into something beautiful and life giving.

So much to think about here. Lots of highlights and notes. And this is a book that I will undoubtedly be returning to many times in the future.

And for what it's worth, given the amount of pages this gives to the Black voice and experience, this book has made a perfect three parter along with Thomas Oden's "How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind" and Esau McCaulley's "Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope". All with similar concern and focus for this discussion of salvation, contextualization, and understanding the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor.

[Carolyn Lind · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful presentation of atonement that opens the biblical narrative with fresh insight; Jesus came to live!

“Salvation is to begin to be free from those evil forces, and to be transformed by the reign of God and to take on a life shaped—marked—by the story of Jesus, whose mission was to make visible the reign of God in our history."
"In carrying out that mission, Jesus was killed by the earthly structures in bondage to the power of evil. His death was not a payment owed to God’s honor, nor was it divine punishment that he suffered as a substitute for sinners. Jesus’ death was the rejection of the rule of God by forces opposed to that rule.” –p.44

Narrative Christus Victor makes plain that salvation is costly, both to the giver and the receiver:

“But being accepted in God’s embrace under the rule of God, experiencing God’s grace, receiving God’s forgiveness is also costly for us. We must “pay a price” in order to experience forgiveness. Genuine repentance manifests itself in a transformed life. Repentance means giving up one life and beginning a new one. The new life may mean suffering, loss of earthly treasure, and even loss of physical life on earth. We have to leave the rule of evil and join the reign of God in resisting evil and making the rule of God visible. That change in allegiance and activity is dear; it costs us our lives, which we give to God for the rest of our time on earth."-p. 216

"The empire became identified with the cause of Christianity and the success ( or failure) of the empire corresponded to the success (or failure) of Christianity....the church no longer confronted empire and society; instead, the church supported and was supported--established--by the empire....Once Christianity became the religion of the empire and of the social order, the continuation of Christianity was linked to the success of the empire, preservation of the empire or the institution of the social order became the decisive criterion for ethical behavior, and the emperor or ruler became the norm against which the rightness of a behavior such as killing or truth-telling was judged..."-p.83

Potentially life changing insights; Weaver's book merits 5 stars.

[Steve Irby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quarantine-Book #28:

I just finished "The Nonviolent Atonement," (2nd edition) by J Denny Weaver.

(More detailed than normal by request.)

Man emulates the God they serve--
God fixed man's biggest problem with violence--
Man will fix, and is justified fixing further problems with violence--

Because of this--along with the possibility that two of the above three lines may be wrong--Weaver has reworked Aulen's Christus Victor into "Narrative Christus Victor" into a form that removes God-ward violence from the Atonement.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the good news one proclaims is precisely the model of Atonement one holds. Be willing to adapt to the person who may listen to you, form a relationship with them; blood and guts may not sound like good news to someone abused as a child.

Weaver first lays out the current families of models, the first of which he calls Anselmian (a shout-out to Anselm): satisfaction, substitution, moral governmental, and penal; this family of "objective" views he defines as

"[T]hat the death of Jesus involved a divinely orchestrated planthrough which Jesus' death could satisfy divine justice or divine law in order to save sinful humankind," p 18.

As an alternative to Anselm a generation later Peter Abelard offered Moral Influence theory as a "subjective" view of the Atonement. Abelard's hangup with Anselm was over the concept that God's attitude toward sinners changed because, to him, God doesn't change.

"Thus for Abelard, Jesus died as a demonstration of God's love. And the change that results from that loving death is not in God but in the subjective consciousness of the sinner, who repent and cease their rebellion against God and turn towards God," p 19.

As an alternative to the above objective and subjective views Weaver offers the aforementioned narrative Christus Victor. The "Narrative" part comes via using the Revelation as a framework; this also emphasizes that Christs' victory is historical and cosmic (metanormal/supernatural) . This lays down a cosmic Christodrama narrative showing the victorious Lion because of the selfsame slain lamb (read it without your left behind glasses). What I appreciate is that the Revelation begins with the birth not the death of Jesus (the dragon chasing the pregnant woman) . People who try to truncate the good news to just three nails miss out on the totality of the Christ-event, the incarnation to the ascension, but reading with the Revelation as a framework permits this. Interestingly, as Weaver footnotes, if we see the Revelation as being futuristic with Armageddon to come as per dispensationalism then that lessens the resurrection: Christ needs to win something in the future which the resurrection wasn't good enough for.

"[T]he resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate and definitive cosmic victory of the reign of God over the rule of Satan and the multiple evils he produces, including war and devastation, famine, pestilence, and natural disasters. This is the victorious Christ, Christus Victor. [...] With the resurrection of Jesus, the reign of God has already begun in human history. While the culmination still awaits, a piece of the future exists now, " p 22.

Weaver now moves on from the cosmic view in the Revelation to the historical view in the gospels. Here we see Jesus and Satan in the wilderness; Satan doesn't get it but what was overcome here is the kingdoms of this world, the antithesis of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom of God blows people's minds: Jesus comes in laughing at their purity laws--talking to women and non-Jews, healing on the Sabbath (his first miracle is the embodiment of this; Jesus brings new wine). And when the Kingdom people live a sermon on the mount/plane lifestyle we are professing Christus Victor in history as Christ did comically in the Revelation. When we seek relationship over purity law, understanding that the ethic is a fruit of the relationship, we profess Jesus the Victorious is King and this is His Kingdom.

Jesus lived, taught and died by the principal of nonviolence which doesn't respond in kind but in love. This ultimately results in Peter sheathing his sword; we are all Peter.

"The resurrection of Jesus, God's act in history to overcome the ultimate enemy--death--puts God's stamp of approval on Jesus. Resurrection is God's testimony that in Jesus, the reign of God has entered into the world. The resurrection of Jesus is an advanced sample of the reign of God that will become visible in its fullness when Jesus returns. To see the life and teaching of Jesus is to see how things are under the rule of God. [... ] Refusing to return evil for evil unmasks the violence of the evil acts, and demonstrates that the evil which killed Jesus originated with humankind and not with God, " p 42.

I read that last part as according to the volcano-god motif that is parasitic with "propitiation."

Weaver goes on to show how Narrative Christus Victor corresponds well with Giradian mimetic theory, which summarized: people always mime each other, hence the name. This makes rivals and rivals make enemies (I believe this is because we hate seeing ourselves reflected back to us) . Tension and chaos builds in a community until the weakest becomes the scapegoat and is killed. After which there is peace for a season. This continues until the resurrection where Jesus "exposes the violence of those who oppose the reign of God. His death unmask the powers of evil and renders empty their claim that peace and order are founded on violence," p 51.

Interestingly, when working through apocalyptical Pauline thought Weaver says that the Anselmian family of objective atonement--satisfaction, substitution--has no need for a risen Savior, only a penalty-paying dead one. Where in Paul the resurrection is foundational. The resurrection points to Jesus is King and ruling already and will come again. The Anselmian family as strictly objective has the Atonement as outside of history. The result is one views oneself as saved but that is the only difference. God checked the box by their name but nothing else is seen as impacted. There is no proclamation of a Kingdom rule over and against the current kingdom... But you got your box checked.

Further in the Pauline corpus a statement like "God made Jesus to become sin" (2 Cor. 5:21) is saying "God was not the direct actor, but He sent His Son into the world ruled by sin, and thus, through the excess of sin making use of the law, He became sin and a curse," p 59, quoting Schwager in "Jesus in the Drama," p 167.

There is a chapter dealing with the patristics and the church, Constantine and the state, and how that whole bunch of nonsense and nope impacted the development of doctrine. Absolutely priceless.

The above is the meat of Narrative Christus Victor. It's 85 of 325 pp. This was a very good read.


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[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book detailing an alternative to the Penal Satisfaction Theory of the Atonement that has become standard for Protestants (and, in a slightly different form, all Western Christians) in the past 400 years or so. Weaver reintroduces the Christus Victor explanantion of the atonement and updates it for today, showing how it is compatible with Black, Feminist and Womanist strands of current theology and linking it to the work of Walter Wink as well as to the Scriptures, in particular Revelation.

His argument, in part, is that the nonviolent approach of Jesus renders the punitive models of atonement and justice invalid. He also points out that the original satisfaction model of Anselm is highly dependent upon that saint's Feudal world-view. In the life of Jesus, Weaver points out that we see the working out of the in-breaking reign of God, validated by his resurrection which marks the defeat of the powers of evil. It is in this victory that we are saved, not in Jesus' death, which was a result of the action of those powers, not of the will of God.

I know that I will be returning to this book again and again along with Mark Heim's complementary "Saved From Sacrifice." My only caveat is a somewhat dry style in the section showing Biblical precedents for the Christus Victor theory. Highly recommended.

[Alan Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

My lifelong struggle to understand and appreciate the death of Jesus and its meaning for me, may have found its resting place in “Narrative Christus Victor” as outlined by J. Denny Weaver in this book. The death of Jesus was not “organized by God” because God demanded that a price had to be paid but was perpetrated by humans who opposed the reign of God.
Weaver takes us through the Gospels and Paul as well as the notion of sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible. He makes the point that Nicene-Chalcedonian Christology, were formulations developed by Churchmen who belonged to the ruling class and seem to separate theology from ethics and allowed ethnic to have a foundation other than the life and teachings of Jesus.
I found this work to be extremely helpful and gave me another reason to be grateful to the Anabaptists.

[Jendi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book of Christian theology that presents a more politically liberating alternative to the standard "satisfaction" atonement theory in which God required the death of Jesus as punishment for sin. Drawing on feminist and black liberation theology, and his Mennonite nonviolent tradition, Weaver describes an atonement theory called "narrative Christus Victor", in which God in Jesus triumphs over human evil by confronting violence with love. Christ's death was a consequence of this confrontation, not a blood sacrifice required by a punishing God. The resurrection, not the crucifixion, reveals God's intentions.

[Thomas Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished this yesterday, September 4, 2022.

Fantastic.

Weaver makes some very interesting points.

All of the classic atonement theories are based on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Basically, describing how Jesus' death saves us. Which means Jesus' life, Jesus' resurrection plays no role in our salvation. Further, he does a great job of describing the history of how the atonement theories move from one to the other.

Starting with Christus Victor (battle imagery, ransoming humanity from Satan) from the time of Constantine to Anselm's Satisfaction Atonement (God's insult must be satisfied - Satan is no longer owed anything to Moral Influence - Christ is simply offering us an example of how to be in the world - which is what makes his death necessary. This is a very rough outline of Weaver's far more extensive description.

In response to this Weaver offers up a new theory of atonement (Narrative Christus Victor). Basically this is the complete Jesus. The Jesus of the parables, the Jesus of the healings, the Jesus who confronts the religious authorities and redefines what it means to keep sabbath, etc. This is the Jesus who was born, taught, died, and lives today. It is this Jesus which saves us.

In my first interview before a District Ordination Committee I was asked a multiple choice question regarding my christology: Was Jesus a person who a) lived, taught, died. Or b) a person who lived, died, and lives today. B) was the answer I was supposed to pick. Further I wasn't given time to sus out the answer. The chairman of the committee snapped as I thought about the question something to the effect of 'this is basic theology - if you can't answer the question immediately then you don't know what you're doing.' Basically, an excuse to hold me over for a few more meetings before passing me on. In my mind, Jesus' resurrection didn't mean anything if Jesus wasn't the Jesus who taught. So, I went with a). Even today, I feel shame in that I wasn't on to their theological game.

If I'd had time to discuss the answer with the chairman I would have talked about the total Jesus. In other words it couldn't be that Jesus just lived, died, and was resurrected from the dead. It had to be the Jesus who lived in between and spent those last three years guiding his first disciples through a multitude of experiences. This Jesus is the one who saves us. If Thomas Brooks or anyone else was the one who lived, died, and lives today it wouldn't mean anything.

Reading Denny Weaver I realize he wrote the book that answers the question asked of my district ordination committee.

I find it interesting - that the most important holidays in our calendar the days when we expect everyone to show up are Christmas Eve and Easter. Jesus' birth and Jesus Death and resurrection are the events when we expect everyone to show up. His birth and death and resurrection are the moments we rehearse and learn over and over again.

Now I have read that the Amish in their worship - visit the Sermon on the Mount every year. This is moving toward a fuller picture of Jesus - a narrative Christus victor.

In the second edition, Weaver dialogues with his critics, and other folks who have weighed in on supporting or rejecting the various atonement theories.

My one critique would be that Weaver can get a bit dense in his explanations. This is not a book which would have gone over with a . . . well . . . fishermen or day laborers. He needs someone to come along and write a translation for the common man.

I for one will not be telling people about Narrative Christus Victor; instead I've begun to talk about how I am preaching the complete Jesus, and not just the one who was born, lived, died, and was resurrected.

Still, Weaver is connecting with a tradition that has been present in the church for quite some time. In Ireland there are these stone High Crosses which date back a thousand years or earlier. On one side there is a crucifix and on the other side there is Christus Victor. My impression is that these stone crosses with there many panels formed an ancient catechism explaining what Jesus means to those who would follow him. These high crosses with their many panels are a concrete example of the Narrative Christus Victor.

Time does not allow me to go into the nonviolent means of Jesus work as narrative Christus victor. Which may be the most important aspect of this work. He leans heavily on the work of Walter Wink.

This is a book which I will be rereading, again and again.

[Margie Dorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Post-EfM students wanted to delve into the theology of Atonement. We chose this book because of the breadth of its coverage--it has substantial sections, for example, on Atonement theology from Black, Feminist, and Womanist perspectives. In general, the author's focus is on his own perspective, that he labels "Narrative Christus Victor, " not to be confused with the classic "Christus Victor." In brief, "Narrative Christus Victor is a biblical way of understanding the salvific work of Jesus and of God in Christ without imaging God as one who abuses the perfect Son for the benefit of others. The God of narrative Christus Victor does suffer with Jesus in making the reign of God visible in the world. But this suffering was not the specific purpose of Jesus' mission, nor was it required by a divine equation."
The problem all of us encountered as we studied, is that regardless of the academic level of any reader, this book is just not written well. The author's editors did not serve him effectively, particularly in the area of topical organization. For example, he introduces personal details of his own Mennonite theological background under the section focusing on Black perspectives on Atonement. His organizational style forced him to reintroduce his own perspective on Atonement so often that we grew tired of hearing about it. It became a waste of words, space, time, and paper. Also, I kept getting the feeling that he did not deeply understand the work of Abelard, and that his presentation is essentially a 21st Century revision of Abelard, despite his rejection of that motif.
We were using the 2nd edition of the book. The material in the book is fairly well-researched, and quite worthwhile. I would suggest a 3rd edition, deeply revised.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main point of this book, creating a view of atonement that avoids making God the author of violence and supports a nonviolent ethic, is a great concept, and the narrative Christus Victor view that Warner presents is a very interesting perspective. At the same time, most of Warner’s writing presumes that the reader completely agrees with Warner, especially on the issues of punishment and nonviolence. This is especially true when just war and punishment are mentioned. Do I generally agree that war and retributive violence are not the Christian way? Sure. But are there times in history when there really is no better solution? I can name a few. It seems like Warner was so focused on the strengths and benefits of his view of atonement that he is entirely incapable of accepting that we might need multiple views of atonement, and that the other views will accomplish something that his will not. This book was good, in that it provided a different atonement image. But it was not an easy read.

[Jonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tremendous book offers a new way to imagine atonement. It is a powerful and well-researched augmention of the well-known Christus Victor model. Not straying far from that classical model, J. Denny Weaver provides a wonderful defense of his new theory. He intersects it with both feminists, black theologians, and womanists. Responding to critics, rehabilitators of Anselm, and tradition, Weaver's book is thorough and will edify anyone who reads it.

[Philip Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weaver has an atonement bias, narrative Christus Victor, and he declares it up front. Herein lies the power of this book, because Weaver then, with admirable patience and fair-mindedness, takes up all other arguments and interpretations.

The second part of the book is most interesting. It contains a treetops exploration of atonement from the minds of black, feminist and womanish commentators. Plenty here to rattle one’s taken-for-granted approaches.

[Caleb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, perhaps 5 years ago this would have really impressed me, but now my theological maturation has really taken to actual Christian orthodoxy, and so because of that, I can now perceive this work to be the drivel that it is, complete waste of time. Lots of misunderstanding about basic Christian dogma, with an ethical agenda driving the entire inquiry. It isn't honest

[Stephen Matlock · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reader on Nonviolent atonement. It is not trying to be "the" final definitive book, but more of a set of exploratory essays. A good resource for those who have not had previous knowledge of Anselm's works--note that it is not a commentary on Anselm, but an exploration that highlights what Anselm said and then presents alternative views.

[Wayne's · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive work that presents a modified soteriology.

[Chris Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This serves both as a great survey of atonement theories and an exploration of the possibility of a nonviolent atonement.

[Katie Mangum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dissection of several atonement theories, making a comprehensive and compelling case for a nonviolent theory. If/when I wanted to revisit it, I will probably go for Weaver's God Without Violence for a lighter read. This one is quite dense and often feels repetitive, but, on the upside, such a detailed work incorporates many theologians and voices.

[Kitap Yakıcı · Rating 5 out of 5]

The working assumption in development of this model is that the rejection of violence, whether the direct violence of the sword or the systemic violence of racism or sexism, should be visible in expressions of Christology and atonement. Developing an understanding shaped by nonviolence then lays bare the extent to which satisfaction atonement is founded on violent assumptions. Thus proposing narrative Christus Victor as a nonviolent atonement motif also poses a fundamental challenge to and ultimately a rejection of satisfaction atonement. (7)

While it is not necessary to adopt my specific suggestion for understanding the historical political connotations of the text of the seven seals [of Revelation], it is important to locate Revelation in the first-century world. With the first-century context in mind, it is clear that the symbolism of conflict and victory in the reign of God over the rule of Satan is a way of ascribing cosmic significance to the church's confrontation of the Roman empire in the first century....It is the imagery itself and not a particular historical interpretation that presents the Christus Victor motif. Most importantly, the theological message that in the resurrection of Jesus the reign of God is victorious over evil remains true even if the sequence of evils and destruction symbolized in seals one to six is interpreted only in terms of general references to war, famine, pestilence, earthquake, and other natural disasters. (27)

The resurrection as the victory of the reign of God over the forces of evil constitutes an invitation to salvation, an invitation to submit to the rule of God. It is an invitation to enter a new life, a life transformed by the rule of God and no longer in bondage to the powers of evil that killed Jesus. For those who perceive the resurrection, the only option that makes sense is to submit to the reign of God. Christians, Christ-identified people, participate in the victory of the resurrection and demonstrate their freedom from bondage to the powers by living under the rule of God rather than continuing to live in the power of the evil that killed Jesus. Salvation is present when allegiances change and new life is lived "in Christ" under the rule of God....

The resurrection reveals the true balance of power in the universe whether sinners perceive it or not. Sinner can ignore the resurrection and continue in opposition to the reign of God, but the reign of God is still victorious. It is this revelation of the true balance of power, whether or not acknowledged by sinful humankind, that distinguishes narrative Christus Victor from moral influence theory. (45)

Jesus' confrontation of evil and his eventual victory through resurrection thus do not appear as completely novel events in the history of God's people. It is rather the continuation and culmination of a mission that began with the call of Abraham. (67)

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weaver offers a challenging argument that any reading of the atonement that sees God as requiring violence to produce redemption, namely the death of his Son in most penal substitutionary atonement doctrines, is deeply inconsistent with the nature of God.

In addition to offering his interesting thoughts on a "narrative Christus-victor" view of the atonement, Weaver offers one of the best engagements with contemporary theologies of the atonement I have come across. He sets up honest dialogue with black liberationist, feminist, and womanist objections to the atonement. He is fully willing to admit that classical atonement theologies have contributed to passivity and oppression.

While his reading of the atonement is non-violence, he clarifies it to say that it does not call for passivity, glorified suffering, or anything that might be co-opted into maintaining the status quo.

It should be noted also that his historical clarification about how his doctrine is different from standard Christus Victor doctrines is important as they too fall into violent depictions. His historical discussion points out that as the Roman Empire slowly merged politically with the church, there seems to be a subtle shift in atonement thought. Where in Irenaeus, for instance, Satan's corruption was defeated with Jesus' obedience, in later atonement theologies, Jesus is described as using something similar to political guile to con Satan into crucifying him. Similarly, where the defeat of Satan by Christ is one where Christ's love and forgiveness combats hate and violence, the military language of later Christus Victor slowly legitimated notions of power and conquest in the church-empire. The atonement became a theological shelf piece rather than the Church's embodied politic.

I am still rereading his arguments, but personally, I do not see all forms of the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement to be completely disproven by what Weaver has said. Jesus did die by the legal sentencing of the law and his death offers a paradigm by which all who are excluded from the covenant are now reconciled. However, the law was corrupted into a weapon of condemnation by Satan. So this view separates the corrupted retributive justice of the law from God's restorative non-violent justice. Weaver goes into detail showing that views that attach retributive justice to God almost always legitimate prison systems that offer little hope to inmates. So, that is a very different statement from the sloppy version of PSA that insists Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God, as if Jesus has come to save us from the anger of the Father.

For me, having already been influenced by James McClendon's brilliant analysis of imagery for the atonement in his Doctrine, I intuitively understood what Weaver was saying. However, I found myself a bit disoriented by his fast paced treatment of biblical material. I would have preferred a passage-by-passage treatment.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good:

* Weaver exhaustively highlights shortcomings in the traditional theories of atonement.

* Rather than sitting on his own critique, Weaver brings in a host of other critiques of traditional atonement theory, and honestly analyzes the degree to which they address both the issues that he has raised and other issues that he had missed.

* Weaver lets the defenders of the traditional theories have quite a good bit of space, and engages their arguments.


The bad:

* I had to read the first few chapters several times, trying to figure out exactly what Weaver's own "narrative Christus Victor" theory of atonement really was. I felt that he either failed to state it concisely, or failed to highlight when he was stating it. Perhaps his feeling was that such a narrative theory of atonement can't be stated concisely...but if so, I think that Weaver should have at least devoted a chapter solely to describing what "narrative Christus Victor" IS, rather than spending so much time describing what it's not or spelling out exactly how he came up with it.

* I don't feel like Weaver subjects his own theory to the same standards of criticism that he subjects other theories to. For instance, at one point he criticizes a theory as just being derivative of an older theory and not a new theory in and of itself...when it would be quite difficult for him to claim that "narrative Christus Victor" is really an entirely new theory and not a derivative of the ancient Christus Victor theory. Most significantly, he repeatedly takes the stance that if Jesus had to die for the theory of atonement to be fulfilled, then it is lacking something, because God would never have his hand absolutely forced to include Jesus's death. Yet Weaver doesn't see that his own theory could be described as requiring Jesus's death (because in narrative Christus Victor Jesus's death is the ultimate example of sacrifice, non-violence, and love) to a similar degree that some of the theories that he criticizes require it. It felt too often that Weaver was trying to draw a clear line, "My theory fulfills all criteria, no one else's does", when no clear line really exists.



Overall, I feel like this is a worthwhile book to read to think through what you really believe about the meaning of Jesus's death and how it actually changed the world. Weaver just gets a bit to polemic in how he portrays the options.

[Sooho Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

**true rating 2.5

Inspired by John Howard Yoder and the pacifist tradition, J. Denny Weaver revisits in this second edition the perceived need for a "nonviolent atonement." Incubated for more than 25 years of reflection, Weaver presents "Narrative Christus Victor" as the most comprehensive and faithful witness to the biblical text. Narrative Christus Victor is drawn from primarily the cosmic battle in Revelation and Jesus' life and ministry in the gospels. In short, Narrative Christus Victor is (chiefly) against satisfaction atonement theories (especially an Anselmian bred), because any satisfaction based theory is "inherently violent." This, in Weaver's understanding, easily jumps to the egregious conclusion that God sanctions -- therefore divinizes -- violence. He corroborates Narrative Christus Victor with Black, Feminist, and Womanist critiques and theologies, though without accepting them wholesale. Weaver's Narrative Christus Victor is certainly a great addition to nonviolent atonement and theology. 

In my reading, however, Weaver is found wanting. Weaver's stringent commitment to nonviolence seems to flavor his theology and readings of the scriptural text more than the overarching narrative of the Bible. Perhaps the "narrative" in Narrative Christus Victor is the narrative he "weaves" for himself? What's more, his nonviolent commitment leads him to omit any divine will for Jesus' death, which inevitably leads him to claim that sin is dealt with through forgiveness of sins -- excluding the cross. The cross was an abrupt end at Jesus' mission to witness to the kingdom. Yet, at the same time, the cross has cosmic significance: it unveils or reveals the true nature of evil and, thereby, breaks their grip. How this is done objectively is not satisfactorily answered. 

Another and, in my opinion, far better Christus Victor account that is not afraid to face the cruelty, severity, shamefulness, and gruesomeness of the cross is Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion. 

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In discussions of dogma, the classic questions of atonement concern the nature of sin and how Jesus' death saves humankind from that sin. Narrative Christus Victor accounts for these questions. It portrays sin as bondage to the forces of evil, whose earthly representatives include the structures of imperial Rome, which had ultimate authority for Jesus' death; the structures of holiness code, to which Jesus posed reforming alternatives; and the mob and the disiciples in their several roles. All participants in society down to and including ourselves, by virtue of what human society is, participate in and are in bondage to - are shaped by - the powers represented by these earthly structures.

Salvation is to begin to be free from these evil forces, and to be transformed by the reign of God and to take on a life shaped - marked - by the story of Jesus, whose mission was to make visible the reign of God in our history." --Weaver

[Emily Plank · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of the book was excellent, but the organization made it difficult to read. I felt like the author used different terms to explain the same things which made it difficult for a non-academic like myself to follow along. It also felt repetitive. It was a very good introduction to black theology, feminist theology, and womanist theology.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenges traditional "satisfaction"-based views of the Atonement on the grounds that they portray God as violent. Weaver argues that God--as revealed in Jesus--is nonviolent and Atonement theory should reflect this. Weaver interacts with black, feminist, and womanist theology, showing that they share his concerns about violent portrayals of God. He proposes a "narrative Christus Victor" understanding of Atonement that emphasizes Jesus' confrontation of and victory over powers of hatred and violence.

[Keith Wyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presents a great alternative to satisfaction/substitutionary/violent atonement theories. Also had excellent introductions to feminist, womanist, and black liberation theologies and theologians. It took a long time to get through this book because I felt there was a little too much repetition and long-windedness. I also understand repetition being necessary when putting narrative Christus Victor in "conversation" with the various theologies and challengers.

[Rev Bill S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought provoking read which radically changed my thinking about ATONEMENT. All students of theology should read this book. You may disagree with the arguments in the book but at least you will be much better informed.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

gave me a vocabulary and theological grounding to talk about what I have only intuited till now.