Critique of Penal Substitution Atonement Theory and Its Influence on the American Death Penalty
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Authors
Shippen, Joseph Jenkins II
Issue Date
2016-05
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
School of Theology Thesis 2016 , Death penalty in America , American prison system , Atonement theology
Alternative Title
Abstract
This thesis examines Christian atonement theology and how it relates to the American
prison system, especially the death penalty. In particular, it explores the ways that penal substitution
theory has influenced the development of the American prison system. It also focuses on the ways
that penal substitution theory has been influenced by secular penal theory and legal philosophy.
My thesis is that the Christian approach to the American prison system and the death
penalty in particular should be driven by an atonement theology derived primarily from narrative
Christus Victor theory rather than penal substitution theory. Based upon scripture and theologians
from the early through the contemporary church, I explore the implications of this atonement
theology on the Christian response to the American system of mass incarceration, especially with
regards to the practice of death penalty.
This thesis shows that the satisfaction family of atonement theories is deeply flawed, and, to
some extent, the moral influence family of atonement theories is flawed as well. As a basis for my
argument, I do an in-depth study of the Suffering Servant and messiahship traditions. I then show
that the New Testament writers primarily looked to these two traditions to understand their
experience with Jesus Christ and then to witness to his atoning life, death, and resurrection. These
two traditions and how they are appropriated by the New Testament writers form the basis of my
critique of satisfaction and moral influence theories of the atonement in favor of narrative Christus
Victor.
This thesis argues that, especially since Anselm proposed his satisfaction theory, atonement
theories have powerfully shaped individual, communal, and societal responses to wrongdoing. I
show that the satisfaction and moral influence theories of atonement developed at the same time
that western legal and penal philosophies and practices were developing. These legal and penal
philosophies and atonement theories have had a great impact upon each other and, at times, have
even been dependent upon each other. I show that penal substitution theory has provided the
ideological justification for the development of the retributivist policies of the American prison
system. I argue in favor of a restorative and nonviolent response to wrongdoing based upon the
ancient Christian sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Reconciliation and the narrative Christus
Victor theology embodied in these practices.
A primary goal of this thesis is for it to be a resource to pastors, in both parish and prison
settings, as they reflect on preaching the cross in American society. It will do so by showing both
that the penal substitution theology, which has underpinned the death penalty and the American
system of mass incarceration, is unhealthy and deeply flawed and that retributivist penal philosophy
has influenced what has become the dominant atonement theology of the western church. A better
approach is urgently needed, and to find it Christians need look no further than the writings of the
New Testament and sacramental practices of the church. This thesis endeavors to do just that.
Description
Citation
Publisher
University of the South