A Theology of Love rather than a Theology of Sacrifice and Atonement

It has now been a bit more than five-years, since my daughter’s God-mother died following a long and miserable battle with cancer.

When I was told her death was imminent, I stopped by her home one night to say good-bye. I don’t recall how our discussion began, but the two of us eventually began discussing how an all-loving, all-just God could require his blameless son to die ignominiously, nailed to a cross as an atonement for the sins of mankind.

During the discussion, we also wondered how an all-loving, all-just God could have punished men and women for all generations for the “sin of Adam and Eve” — for eating fruit from the forbidden tree. How could an all-loving, all-just God impute the “sin” of Adam to men and women who did not exist at the time of “Adam’s sin,” and who had no part in committing that sin?

Both before and after that night, I have pondered these questions. I have never been quite able to accept that an all-loving, all-just God demanded a blood sacrifice of his only, and entirely innocent and blameless, son to restore God’s children to God’s friendship.

So, did Christ come into the world to be sacrificed? Not if we take Christ at his word. At John 14: 6, 7, Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

I have never doubted that God and Christ were omniscient. Afterall, Christ told his apostles that “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” Mark 9:31.Actually, Christ predicted his death and resurrection three times.

Over time, I have concluded that God sent his son incarnate to show mankind the way that God wants us to walk, the truth that we have an all-loving, all just father, and that if we walk His way, our reward is eternal life.

That God sent his wholly-blameless son into the world to be “murdered” and “sacrificed,” seems utterly inconsistent with Christ’s teaching that God is an all-loving father. What all- loving father would require his son to be crucified — sacrificed?

So, did God intend that Christ be sacrificed? Or did he, in his omniscience, simply know that it would happen?

Did God really intend that his son be crucified as a condition of restoring his own children to his friendship? That’s the essence of “atonement theology.” In the words of my daughter’s God-Mother, “surely an omniscient, all-loving God could have come up with another way to reconcile mankind to Himself, short of ordaining his son’s crucifixion.”

But if God did not intend his son be sacrificed, who did?

Did the Romans and/or Jews who killed Christ think they were offering a “sacrifice” to God? Or did the Jewish leaders insist on Christ death because they believed him guilty of blasphemy?

Certainly, Pilate did not order Christ execution as a “sacrifice” to the Jewish God or any Roman God. Christ was condemned as a criminal.

Did Christ intend to sacrifice himself? Was Christ suicidal? If so, why did he pray that the Father might let the cup pass by?

Is it not equally probable that Christ became incarnate to show mankind the “way” to please God, and the “true way” to achieve everlasting life, knowing that men would put him to death, but also knowing that God would place His supreme “stamp of approval” upon all He did during his mission on Earth, by raising him from the dead, on the third day — precisely as he had predicted.

This op ed was prompted by a short article that a Protestant-thinker and lawyer-friend sent me earlier today.https://cac.org/daily-meditations/at-one-ment-not-atonement-breaking-up-old-logic-2020-02-05/

I had not realized that as early as the 13th century, there were theologians who questioned how an all-loving, all-just God could send his beloved son to Earth, and demand his crucifixion. Among them, were the scholar and theologian, Duns Scotus, and members of his Franciscan Order.

The Center for Action and Contemplation sums up Dun Scotus’ position thusly:

“Duns Scotus was not guided by the (Jewish) Temple language of debt, atonement, and blood sacrifice, which was understandably used by the Gospel writers and by Paul. Instead, he was inspired by the cosmic hymns in the first chapters of Colossians and Ephesians and the Prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-18). While the Church has never rejected the Franciscan position, it has remained a minority view.”

“Our sin could not possibly be the motive for the incarnation! Only perfect love and divine self-revelation could inspire God to come in human form. God never merely reacts, but supremely andfreely acts out of love. 

“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God! God is not someone to be afraid of, but is … on our side.”

Whether all this plays any part in church closings, I leave for you to decide.

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on June 19, 2024. 
Copyright 2024, John Donald O'Shea

Imagine an America with no Churches and no Synagogues.

On the feast of Pentecost, commemorating the birthday of the Christian church, the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria, announced that between now and May 2026, “the diocese will be “reshaped” from 156 parishes to 75 parishes, with 129 worship sites.”

Two reasons are given for the contraction: a decline in Mass attendance by the faithful, and a prediction of a shrinking number of priests. Seventy percent of the 145 total priests ministering in the diocese are over the age of 50. According to the diocese’s projections, in the next 10 years, there may be fewer than 100 active priests.

But then, what happens when the number of active priests falls to 50? When even fewer “Catholics” attend Mass? Remain active in their parishes? Will half of the remaining parishes be shuttered?

How many parishes can be closed before the Catholic Church fades into utter irrelevance? And what happens, when it does?

For 2000 years, the Catholic Church has taught that there is an all-loving God who eternally rewards men for the good they do, and punishes them for their evil deeds. And that Christ, his only son, is the way, truth and life.

What happens when the Jewish/Christian God comes to be regarded as nothing more than a pious fable? Who/What replaces him?

Does each man become a little “god” who creates his own rules — his own divine law?

Once you’ve rejected the Jewish/Christian law-giver, who replaces him? If there is no divine law-giver, who punish violations of the laws of our society, that go unpunished by our criminal justice system?

A man commits murder, and by perjury convinces his jurors that that he is innocent. A dictator, operating on the principle of “might makes right” confiscates and amasses a personal fortune of half the wealth of his country, while unjustly executing millions of his countrymen? A tyrant, who like the Roman emperors of old, declares himself “the only true god?” Without divine punishment of evil in an after-life, where is the “justice?”

Before you applaud the decline of the Catholic Church, and/or the decline of the other organized Christian religions, consider what you are seeing in the news:

Mobs of masked criminals invade a jewelry store, smash the counters, and in two minutes loot a million dollars-worth of jewelry;

Organized gangs send kilograms of fentanyl across our southern border, earning millions of dollars — which in the course of three years kills 300,000 U.S. citizens;

Young street-gang members shoot down city streets, killing members of the rival street gang — and bystanders,

Do the people who do these things believe that if not punished in this life, that that will be in the next?

Do they believe in the Judeo-Christian teaching that we must love God with out whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself?

If you love your neighbor as yourself, do you steal his goods? Sell him deadly drugs? Shoot and kill him in a dispute over who can sell illegal drugs in a given neighborhood?

Or does each such predator set himself up as “god,” and determine for himself what is “good” and “evil?” Does “might make right?” Does possessing the deadliest gun make right?

And if the Christian churches and the Ten Commandments are relegated to the scrapheap of history, how many cops will we needed to protect the disabled, the elderly, the meek and the peacemakers from the predators? One in every home? Two? How many on every street corner?

In a nation where every inhabitant loves God and loves his neighbor as he loves himself, few, if any, police officers will be needed., In a nation where every man is a law unto himself, an officer at every street corner will not be enough.

When the churches and synagogues are gone, who will teach that there is a God, and that that God rewards good and punishes evil? Not the public schools. In many cases, not even the parents. So, who? Hollywood? The internet?

The Ten Commandments, which Judaism and Christianity teach are God-given, are the underpinnings of our criminal law. It is in the Ten Commandments that we have “objective” right and wrong. Without a divine lawgiver, one man’s guess as to what is right and wrong, is as good that of any other. Without a God, we are all little gods, and right and wrong becomes “subjective” to each one of us.

A few years ago, the beautiful Tri-City Jewish Center closed. Now 81 Catholic parish will die, in large part because many Catholics have lost interest and no longer attend.

The choices people make have consequence. The state, by its criminal law, will still teach what is right and want is wrong. Some parents will still take the time. But without the churches teaching that God ordains what is right and what is wrong, and punishes transgression of his laws, the state loses the strongest underpinning of its laws.

I therefore mourn that the loss of 81 Catholic churches as a great loss to our society. I would feel the same way if 81 protestant churches were to close. I would also mourn the loss of the last Quad City synagogue.

Without a divine law-giver, do we revert to the law of the jungle? To might makes right? You decide.

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on June 9, 2024. 
Copyright 2024, John Donald O'Shea