God's wrath or God's honor?

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In his "First Things First" column on the message of the cross (July), Ervin Stutzman states: "Anselm understood Christ's death as a penal substitution—a spiritual transaction by which God vented on Jesus the wrath deserved by others, releasing them of their guilt." Stutzman, however, has cited Calvin's theory and attributed it to Anselm.

An unfortunate aspect of the recent debate over atonement theology among Mennonites has been the tendency to conflate Anselm and Calvin. While sharing some assumptions, their respective theories frame the need for atonement in different terms. Whereas Calvin thinks in terms of a divine requirement to punish sinners to propitiate God's wrath, Anselm thinks in terms of a human obligation to repay honor to God on account of sin. Sin "robs" God of his "due" as Creator and so offends God. What is thus needed is not retribution against human sinners but restitution of God's honor. There is nothing here concerning God's wrath or of God punishing Jesus in our place. Anslem understands the satisfaction made by Christ on our behalf as an alternative to divine punishment. And what satisfies God is Christ's perfect obedience, in life and death.

Anselm's theory, for sure, is not adequate to Paul's message. But conflating Anselm and Calvin obscures two important elements of Anselm's theory that may well be of interest to Menno­nites: God's desire is for our whole-lived obedience; and God's justice, although premised on the principle of retribution and accomplished by means of a transaction, has a restorative purpose, to repair the relationship between God and humanity and so restore the order of creation.

Associated Issue: Love, sex, marriage - July 2010

Associated Article: First things first: A message of first importance

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