“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9:6) Genesis 9:6 is a standard text used to support the principle of lex talionis (a life for a life). In this case, those who murder shall be killed. Although there is some debate over whether the text indicates that the one who kills is man or God, the principle is clear: those who commit murder deserve death. As Bruce Waltke points out, such a payment is a demand of God: “This is an obligation, not an option… Blood shed through homicide must be dealt with.”[1] Waltke argues that the…
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Review: Forsaken by Tom McCall
In his hour of agony on the cross, Christ cried out to his Father, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). What did he mean? Did the Father reject the Son in such a way that the Triune God was temporarily broken? Does the Son suffer the rejection of his Father as the Son or is Christ forsaken in an entirely different way? Tom McCall argues that the forsakenness of Christ does not mean a rupture in the unity of the Trinity, but that the Father forsakes the Son to his death at the hand of sinners for the purpose of our salvation.[1] McCall contends that…
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Tanner’s Atonement
The following is an analysis of feminist theologian, Kathryn Tanner. She is quite difficult to read, but I enjoyed tackling her thought. I am possibly a little harsh sounding in my critique so forgive the polemics. However, her thought is very common in contemporary modern theology and so you might, perhaps, find it interesting. The theological starting point for feminist theology is usually something like: “scripture must be re-interpreted to support the emancipation of women rather than their oppression.”1 The traditional understanding of the atonement, particularly as it had been understood in the male dominated Western church, is, according to feminists, most in need of re-interpretation. Whatever the atonement is, feminists conclude, it…
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Žižek’s Atonement
For Slavoj Žižek, God is a concept, but a substantively empty one. He is the ghost in the literal sense, a haunting memory. However, for Žižek, “a materialist through and through,” one should pass through the sea of Christianity to the banks of materialism because, “Christianity is accessible only to a materialist approach—and vice versa: to become a true dialectical materialist, one should go through the Christian experience.”1 So what waters does he have in mind? What, for instance, does Žižek think about the central Christian doctrine of the atonement? On this topic, Žižek focuses on Paul. He sees Paul as a proto-marxist, a “radical Jew”2 who ignores Christ as…