"The God who was in Christ
should be
understood
through nonviolent images."
As Saving Paradise takes
us into the Christian middle ages – and introduces us to new theories of the atonement that rose in the middle ages – it may be helpful to read the following (which has been
adapted from The Nonviolent Atonement, by J. Denny Weaver): *
(1) Jesus’ life showed the presence of God’s reign on earth.
(2) Jesus’ resurrection – not Jesus’ death – was God’s saving act.
(3) Ever since Jesus’ resurrection, his Spirit lives with us on earth.
(4) Through the Spirit, God calls us to participate in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
(5) When we accept God’s call, we become co-laborers with Jesus, working to make God’s reign present and visible on earth.
(6) We do this, as Jesus did, through love – not through control, coercion, or violence.
[This theory of the way God works in the world] … suggests a
rereading of the Bible’s story from beginning to end. In this story, God enters human history with
the call of Abraham. The history of
Israel shows their continuing effort to understand who they were as the people
of God …to understand their mission to make God’s rule visible in the
world. Jesus is a continuation of that
story, at a new level of God’s working in the world...
One specific implication of this story of God working in the
world is that it has no place for a relationship to God that is based on….the
idea that restoring justice means to punish…or depends on a divinely
sanctioned and divinely directed violent death.
This story of God’s working in the world calls for
understanding the nonviolence of God.
As he concludes The Nonviolent Atonement, Weaver adds,
Rethinking the understanding of God, developing a nonviolent image of
God, was not an impetus or even a question some years ago as I began to think
about issues of violence and nonviolence in atonement imagery. Nonetheless, the more I thought about the
implications of atonement theology, a nonviolent image of God emerged seemingly
of itself. It gradually became clear to
me that if “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19),
and if Jesus Christ did indeed reject the sword, then it follows that the God
who was in Christ should be understood in nonviolent images.
What do you think?
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