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The Nonviolent Atonement

j. denny weaver

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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.

260 pages, Paperback

First published November 1,2001

This edition

Format
260 pages, Paperback
Published
August 28, 2001 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
ISBN
9780802849083
ASIN
0802849083
Language
English

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j. denny weaver

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Profile Image for Kimberly .
TheNextThing
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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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.
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vikpun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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**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.
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manserpent
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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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."
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Gini-Gini
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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gave me a vocabulary and theological grounding to talk about what I have only intuited till now.
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Desperationation
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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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.
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Ysltrm
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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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
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StellarAbyss
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This serves both as a great survey of atonement theories and an exploration of the possibility of a nonviolent atonement.
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