Atonement

The concept of the atonement is one of the defining doctrine of Christianity. Over the course of many centuries, theologians, church forefathers, philosophers and more have proposed a huge expanse of interpretations of Christ's sacrifice for humanity, each different to the next. In this ambitious study, Eleonore Stump uses the context of this history of interpretation to reconsider the doctrine afresh with philosophical care.

Whatever exactly the atonement is, it is supposed to include a solution to the problems of the human condition, especially its guilt and shame. Stump canvasses the major interpretations of the doctrine, highlighting their shortcomings as an explanation for this solution. In their place, she argues for an interpretation that is both novel whilst still using traditional theology, including Anselm's well-known account of the doctrine. Atonement is a rich exploration of the doctrine and all that it covers: love, union, guilt, shame, forgiveness, retribution, punishment, shared attention, mind-reading, empathy, and various other issues in moral psychology and ethics.

Eleonore Stump, Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy, Saint Louis University

Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. She is also Honorary Professor at Wuhan University and at the Logos Institute, St Andrews, and a Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University. She has published extensively in philosophy of religion, contemporary metaphysics, and medieval philosophy. Her books include Aquinas (2003) and Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (2010). She has given the Gifford Lectures (2003), the Wilde lectures (2006), the Stewart lectures (2009), and the Stanton lectures at Cambridge in 2018. She is past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the American Philosophical Association, Central Division; and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Part I: What Is Wanted, What Is Needed to Get What Is Wanted, and What Will Not Work
1. Methodology, Problems, and Desiderata
2. Guilt, Shame, and Satisfaction
3. The Anselmian Interpretation of the Atonement: Love, Goodness, Justice, and Forgiveness
Part II: What Is Wanted: What It Is Not and What It Is
4. Union: God's Omnipresence and Indwelling
5. Union: God's Omnipresence and Indwelling
6. Willing What God Wills: Eckhart and Aquinas
7. Life in Grace
Part III: What Is Needed to Get What Is Wanted and the Atonement of Christ
8. The Temptations of Christ and Other Stories
9. Perseverance: Eucharist and Suffering
Part IV: The Desiderata for an Interpretation of the Doctrine of the Atonement
10. The Atonement and the Solution to the Problems of Guilt and Shame
11. Conclusion: The Remaining Desiderata and Final Reflection
Bibliography