Jonathan Edwards,Anselmic Satisfaction and God's Moral Government |
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| Authors: | S. Mark Hamilton |
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| Affiliation: | Faculty of Theology, Free University of Amsterdam, Oldebroek, HV, Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Jonathan Edwards' doctrine of atonement has recently become a source of interest amongst some contemporary systematic theologians. This article sets out to redress two longstanding and historically strident claims regarding Edwards' doctrine of the nature of atonement: first, that Edwards espoused an Anselmic satisfaction theory of atonement; second, that Edwards also laid the theological foundation for the moral government theory of atonement, popularized in nineteenth‐century America by those of his intellectual tradition. In this article, I lay out the conceptual core of both Anselm's satisfaction theory and the moral government theory of atonement. I argue that the claims noted above lack the explanatory resources needed to account accurately for Edwards' understanding of the nature of the atonement. |
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