Christus Victor

Part of a series on
Atonement in
Christianity
Theories
Classic paradigm
Ransom
(Patristic)
Christus Victor
(20th century)

Recapitulation
(Patristic)

Objective paradigm
Satisfaction
(Scholastic / Anselmian)
Penal substitution
(Scholastic / Reformed / Arminian)

Governmental
(Arminian)

Subjective paradigm
Moral influence
(Mixed)
Moral example
(Socinian)
Types
Limited
(Scholastic / Reformed)
Unlimited
(Amyraldism / Arminianism / Protestantism)
See also
Christian universalism

Christus Victor is a book by Gustaf Aulén published in English in 1931, presenting a study of theories of atonement in Christianity. The original Swedish title is Den kristna försoningstanken ("The Christian Idea of the Atonement") published in 1930.[1] Aulén reinterpreted the classic ransom theory of atonement, which says that Christ's death is a ransom to the powers of evil, which had held humankind in their dominion.[2] It is a model of the atonement that is dated to the Church Fathers,[3] and it was the dominant theory of atonement for a thousand years,[citation needed] until Anselm of Canterbury supplanted it in the West with his satisfaction theory of atonement.[3]

Aulén interpreted the ransom theory as a "victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil."[4] According to Pugh, "Ever since [Aulén's] time, we call these patristic ideas the Christus Victor way of seeing the cross."[5] It is sometimes known as the fishhook theory of atonement, since Church Fathers such as Cyril of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa envisioned Christ as bait on a fishhook, luring Satan to take the bait and destroy himself.[6][7]

  1. ^ Aulén 1969.
  2. ^ Leon Morris, 'Theories of the Atonement' in Elwell Evangelical Dictionary.
  3. ^ a b H. N. Oxenham, The Catholic doctrine of the atonement (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865), p. xliv,114
  4. ^ Aulén 1969, p. 20.
  5. ^ Pugh 2015, p. 1.
  6. ^ Schapiro, Meyer (1945). ""Muscipula Diaboli," The Symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece". The Art Bulletin. 27 (3): 182–187. doi:10.2307/3047011. JSTOR 3047011. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  7. ^ Estes, Liz (2017). "Reincorporating Christus Victor in the Reformed Theology of Atonement". Reformed Journal. Retrieved 15 May 2022.