Dave's Mormon Inquiry

The Theological Atonement

Last week I posted The Atheological Atonement, noting that the LDS Church affirms the atonement but not any particular theory of the atonement, and suggesting this is actually not a bad "official" position for the Church to take. This post takes a different approach: if the Church were to move towards a publicly stated theory of the atonement, in which direction should it move? I will be relying on Gustaf Aulen's (1879-1977) fine little book Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement (Macmillan Co., 1966; American edition, 12th printing, trans. by A. G. Hebert; originally published in Swedish in 1930).

Better Than Apologetics

Over at Patheos, Joe Spencer posted "Apologetics Again — But This Time with Feeling." Joe argues that Mormonism needs traditional apologetics but that it also needs more than just traditional apologetics. He argues that what Mormonism really needs is something like deep and informed scriptural exegesis that uncovers important doctrinal truths and themes that have not, as yet, been expounded by LDS leaders and intellectuals or at least not properly framed and emphasized. Other denominations would call that activity theology.

The Atheological Atonement

I presented a paper on vicarious atonement at the recent SMPT Conference. To prepare the paper, I reviewed the various theories of the atonement offered by Christian theology as well as the LDS view(s) of the atonement. I came to two mildly surprising conclusions.

It Takes Courage for a Mormon to Dissent

That's a quotation from Wallace Stegner, found in historian James L. Clayton's 10-page review of Wallace Stegner's writings on Mormons, "From Pioneers to Provincials: Mormonism as seen by Wallace Stegner," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 1 No. 4 (1966): 105-114. Stegner's family moved from Saskatchewan to Salt Lake City when he was a young boy, and he lived there until graduating with an English degree from the University of Utah. Later, he returned to teach English at the U for three more years in the mid-1930s. The two books in which he discussed Mormonism at length are Mormon Country (1942) and The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail (1964). Stegner loves the LDS pioneers who crossed the plains, but, Clayton notes, "When Stegner moves away from descriptions or the original pioneers and their hardships ... he becomes much more critical."

The Atonement as Moral Influence

Here's the next article from the Dialogue archive, Eugene England's essay "That They Might Not Suffer: The Gift of the Atonement," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 1 No. 2 (1966): 141-55. After discussing key LDS scriptures that discuss the atonement and reviewing the primary theories of atonement that have emerged within Christian theology over the course of two millennia (the ransom theory, the satisfaction theory, the moral influence theory), England gives his opinion that the LDS concept of atonement is "close to Abelard's [moral influence theory], with the important addition of an understanding of why the atonement is absolutely necessary." This is something of a minority position within LDS thought: most LDS commentators align the LDS view of the atonement nearer the satisfaction theory, a substitutionary theory of the atonement. [There is no "official" LDS endorsement of a detailed theory of the atonement; LDS scriptural discussions permit broad readings.]