8 - Breaking and restoring relationships
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
Summary
RESTORING HUMAN RELATIONS
In section 1.3 we argued that Christians understand the meaning of their lives in the light of the way in which they are related to God. Life is significant because it is lived coram Deo, in the presence of God, and ultimate happiness consists in being in the right relation with God. Through sin, however, our relationship with God has been drastically disrupted. The fundamental religious issue which we all have to face, therefore, is how this relationship can be restored. How can we attain ultimate happiness by being reconciled with God? Basically, this is the issue with which the doctrine of atonement has to deal: ‘The English word ‘atonement’ is derived from the words ‘at-one-ment’, to make two parties at one, to reconcile two parties one to another. It means essentially reconciliation … In current usage, the phrase ‘to atone for’ means the undertaking of a course of action designed to undo the consequences of a wrong act with a view to the restoration of the relationship broken by the wrong act.’
The nature of this reconciliation depends of course upon the nature of the relationship which has to be restored, and the variety of theories of atonement in Christian theology derive in the end from the variety of conceptual models in terms of which Christian theologians have tried to understand the divine–human relationship.
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- The Model of LoveA Study in Philosophical Theology, pp. 182 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993