Atonement, Impassibility and the Communicatio Operationum
The biblical account of sin and the saving power of the cross stipulates that only one who is God himself can atone for the sin of the world. Older Protestant theologians expounded this scriptural teaching by using the christological concept of the communicatio operationum, without foregoing the doc...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2015]
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| In: |
International journal of systematic theology
Year: 2015, Volume: 17, Issue: 3, Pages: 284-295 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KDD Protestant Church NBC Doctrine of God NBF Christology NBM Doctrine of Justification |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The biblical account of sin and the saving power of the cross stipulates that only one who is God himself can atone for the sin of the world. Older Protestant theologians expounded this scriptural teaching by using the christological concept of the communicatio operationum, without foregoing the doctrine of divine impassibility. However, in contemporary discussion of the atonement, the viability of the communicatio operationum and the impassibility of God have both been called into question. This article recognizes the need for God the Son himself to act and suffer directly on the cross but, in doing so, also argues that we can uphold the impassibility of God by recovering the communicatio operationum and setting out how it coheres with God's impassibility. I therefore discuss the exegetical purpose and dogmatic contours of the communicatio operationum and then display its relationship to God's impassibility in a retrieval of several moves in traditional Reformed theology proper and Christology, in particular the distinction between essence and person in God, the meaning of the enhypostasis of Christ's humanity and the meaning of the communicatio idiomatum. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-2400 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International journal of systematic theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/ijst.12108 |