Cranmer's Curate: Collect Presupposes Penal Substition

http://cranmercurate.blogspot.com/2012/03/collect-presupposing-penal-substitution.html

Sunday, 18 March 2012

COLLECT PRESUPPOSING PENAL SUBSTITUTION

Is one's theory of the atonement influenced by one's psychological profile? That it tends to be was the claim Cranmer's Curate heard at a recent theological lecture here in Sheffield.

So if one is prone to low self-esteem and guilt feelings, then one leans towards the penal subsitutionary view, the idea that Christ's death on the Cross propitiated the wrath of God that would otherwise fall on guilty sinners.

If one is an activist with a sense of social duty, then one leans towards the exemplary view of the atonement, the idea that Christ exemplified self-sacrificial love by his death.

If one is an optimistic triumphalist type, then one leans towards the Christus Victor view as the dominant theory of atonement, the idea that Christ's death decisively defeated the forces of evil.

Given that Anglicanism holds Holy Scripture to be the supreme authority, then communicant Anglicans have a moral obligation to adjust their personality type to the truth that God has revealed rather than foisting their psychological profile on the atonement.

Which leaves communicants with a choice in relation to the Book of Common Prayer. Because the Prayer Book breathes the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, either one must see its perspective as a reflection of Thomas Cranmer's psychological profile or one must decide that it is faithfully biblical.

Whilst the BCP holds that Christ did set an example in his death (see its Collect for the Sunday Next Before Easter) and also holds that he did defeat the forces of evil (a victory the BCP attaches more to his resurrection - see for example the Collect for Easter Day), the perspective in its Holy Communion service is that atonement is centrally about the fact that Christ's propitiatory sacrifice on the Cross has satisfied the just judgement of God upon sin.

Blogging off until after Easter, Cranmer's Curate leaves the youth group with the BCP Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, a prayer that presupposes penal substitution. It presents the reality of the divine wrath that the Lord Jesus averted from us by his propitiatory death:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.