Anxiety, Guilt, and Shame in the atonement

Abstract

If mental health is a Christian value and mental hygiene one practical concern of the church (as many churchmen now hold), Christian education in the churches must be enlightened, among other things, by the data of religious psychopathology and the psychology of religion. If man's redemption is to be proclaimed, it is important that not only the positive symbol values, but also the limitations and even the dangers of each of the [three] atonement theories be made clear.… I would be inclined to advocate a broad representation of all the atonement models.… not only [to] help revitalize many now antiquated and quaint, but in principle crucial Christian propositions, but also [to] aid people in overcoming the crude, unnecessarily primitive and un-biblical supernaturalisms which abound in yesterday's and today's Christianity. © 1964, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.