Fußnote: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland: Gestorben für uns. -

In the EKD foundational paper "Gestorben für uns", the much-debated doctrine of Christ's vicarious atoning death is interpreted in terms of trinity: In his death, God sacrifices himself for our sake. He is not cruel when having his son killed. Despite many good thoughts, this foundational paper is a failure: Neither does it apply a hermeneutics of mythic images nor reveal any acquaintance with the demythologization debate. It does obviously not take into account that the recently increasing rejection of death penalty makes it hard for many people to understand an execution as basis of salvation. The paper does neither take notice of the plethora of New Testament images that explain Jesus's death nor of its interpretation as scandal, although it might be well understood this way in a modern culture of breaking taboos. As a reader, one misses a lot of theological traditions interpreting the cross not 'from above' but rather 'from below', from P. Abaelard's doctrine of subjective reconciliation and mysticism of passion to D. Sölle's theology of substitution and René Girard's 'scapegoat theory'. Even the Holy Spirit does not play any role, despite the Trinitarian approach of the paper. J. Moltmann's theologia crucis, which interprets the cross as motivation for a change of the world in ways of justice, peace and the preservation of creation and which escapes some of the criticized imbalances, is not even mentioned. To avoid being too critical, the author finally sketches his own attempt at taking the cross as revelation of human mischief seriously and considering the Easter message as turn towards salvation.

Enthalten in:
Evangelische Theologie; 2016/2 Zweimonatsschrift (2016)

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Serie / Reihe: Evangelische Theologie

Personen: Theißen, Gerd

Schlagwörter: Tod Jesus Christus Erlösung Sühne