504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-209) and
indexes.
505 0 Introduction -- Atonement as purification -- Atonement as
compensation or reciprocity -- Attachment, cruelty, and
coping -- Rescue and disgust in Paul -- Answers to
Atonement -- Fear and loathing in the Epistle to the
Hebrews -- Atonement played out -- Conclusion.
520 "Beneath the commonplace affirmation that Jesus 'paid for
our sins' lie depths of implication: Did God demand a
blood sacrifice to assuage divine anger? Is sacrifice
(consciously or unconsciously) intended to induce the
deity to show favor? What underlies the various metaphors
for atonement used in the Bible? Here, Stephen Finlan
surveys psychological theories that help us to understand
beliefs about sacrifice and atonement and what they may
reveal about patterns of injury, guilt, shame, and
appeasement. Early chapters examine the language in both
testaments of purity and the 'scapegoat,' and of payment,
obligation, reciprocity, and redemption. Later chapters
review theories of the origins of atonement thinking in
fear and traumatic childhood experience, in ambivalent or
avoidant attachment to the parents, and in 'poisonous
pedagogy.' The theories of Sandor Rado, Mary Ainsworth,
Erik Erikson, and Alice Miller are examined, then Finlan
draws conclusions about the moral responsibility of
appropriating or rejecting atonement metaphors. His
arguments bear careful consideration by all who live with
these metaphors and their effects today."--publisher's
description.