Mrs. Eddy: “The atonement is a hard problem in theology” (S & H, p. 23 – Lesson citation #3).
For clarification on this “hard problem,” several articles helped me. I’ve listed some summary points below:
• The atonement is a hard problem because theological teaching, as distinguished from Christ’s teaching, has deliberately and persistently fixed a secondary meaning to the word (as noted below).
• When the teachings of scholasticism and Christian Science fail to harmonize, a study of the dictionaries will get at the root of the matter. Mrs. Eddy insisted on penetrating beneath superficial reasonings and interpretations.
• “Atone” – From at one, i.e. to be, or cause to be, at one: to agree; to be in accordance; to set at one; to reduce to concord; Latin – “ad” and “uno” – to join together.
• “Atonement” (noun) – literally, a setting at one (from original Greek); at-one-ment.
• “Reconciliation” (synonym of atonement) – restoration of friendly relations, agreement, concord; man’s unity with God.
• The teaching of scholastic theology (the creed) on atonement is based on this secondary definition – to make satisfaction for; to expiate; specifically in theology, the expiation of sin made by the obedience, personal suffering, and death of Christ.
• “Expiate” – appease, pacify, allay resentment; to extinguish the guilt of a crime by subsequent acts of piety or worship, by which the obligation to punish the crime is cancelled; to perform some act by which wrath is appeased, and forgiveness procured.
• CONTRASTS: Theology/Scholasticism/The Creeds VS Christian Science teachings on “atonement”:
o The creeds teach that Jesus suffered and died on the cross that the world might be saved, VERSUS Christian Science teaches that Christ Jesus overcame the suffering and death of the cross, that the world might be saved.
o The creeds hold that God needed to be appeased, by the crucifixion of the innocent, for the sins of the world, VERSUS Christian Science declares that an all-good God, holding the Christ in an unbroken, eternal sense of Life, acted directly upon the consciousness of Christ Jesus to the bringing about of his resurrection and ascension in spite of the crucifixion which malice and hate, in defiance of God, hurled upon Jesus.
o The creeds suggest that whosoever believes that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world is saved by such belief, VERSUS Christian Science takes the position that a mentality that believes itself saved because it accepts church history and doctrine concerning Christ Jesus, may at the same time be buried in self-complacency, delaying its salvation because of its very belief that it is saved.
• Doctrine evolved by theology: God, who is all-wise, has created mankind in His own image, but men and women are weak, ignorant, and frail, and liable to fall into sin. God has threatened mankind with death and eternal damnation if/when they fall into sin – a “no-win” situation for mankind. Later God modifies this, and chooses to help man out by a bloody sacrifice. This is an expiation, or sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. The atonement was, under various systems of theology, construed to mean an expiatory and bloody sacrifice made by the Son of God, whereby he suffered a death of awful torture to appease the wrath of his own Father, which had been visited upon the weak, erring, and sinful children of earth.
• Vicarious atonement, the keystone of orthodox theology, has been responsible for unmeasured sin, and sorrow, and the ruin of multitudes of souls who have thought to escape from personal responsibility by making a scapegoat of Christ. Its effect is pernicious and corrupting. Forsaking of these ‘harmful dogmas of the creeds’ and a return to the sane and simple religion of Christ, who obeyed and trusted God and practiced the Golden Rule, would bring us into harmony with God and solve our problems.
• Christian Science – The actual process of living Christ’s teachings day by day, hour by hour, is the only method by which thought and life can be made “at-one” with God, the Father.
Mrs. Eddy – Tenet #3: “We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts our evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts” (S & H, p. 497), AND, “. . .we are to work out our own salvation, and to meet the responsibility of our own thoughts and acts;. . .” (Christian Healing, p. 5)
Sources: (1) “Atonement” – CSJ, April 1908, by Blanche H. Hogue; (2) “Vicarious Atonement” – CSS, 9/21/1899, article published in The Cleveland Leader, reporting on a sermon given by Rev. Carl D. Henry at All Saints’ Universalist Church; (3) “Atonement: Its primary and original meaning” – CSJ, Feb 1898, by W.S.B.