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Redemptive suffering: Christ's alone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2007

Mary VandenBerg
Mary VandenBerg*
Affiliation:
Calvin Theological Seminary, 3233 Burton SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, [email protected]
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Abstract

In recent years feminists and others have taken issue with traditional understandings of the atonement. Part of their criticism has been the assertion that to glorify Christ's suffering entails glorifying all suffering, a connection that potentially leads to abusive behaviour. Suffering, they claim, is not redemptive – ever. In this article I argue that, based on the biblical text, at least one instance of suffering, the suffering of Christ, is redemptive. In addition, I argue that redemptive suffering is unique to Christ. Human suffering is not redemptive and should not be spoken of in those terms.

Type
Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 394 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2007

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References

1 Brown, Joanne Carlson and Parker, Rebecca, ‘For God So Loved the World?’, in Brown, Joanne Carlson and Bohn, Carole R. (eds), Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse: A Feminist Critique (New York: Pilgrim Press, 1989), p. 2Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., p. 4.

3 Ibid., p. 26.

4 Ibid., p. 26.

5 Julie, Hopkins, Towards A Feminist Christology: Jesus of Nazareth, European Women, and the Christological Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), p. 50Google Scholar.

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7 Ibid., p. 50.

8 Ibid., p. 58.

9 Weaver, J. Denny, The Nonviolent Atonement (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 22Google Scholar.

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11 Marie F. Fortune, ‘The Transformation of Suffering: A Biblical and Theological Perspective’, in Brown and Bohn (eds), Christianity, Patriarchy and Abuse, p. 140.

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19 Ibid., p. 351.

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24 Ibid., p. 486.

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27 Timothy actually uses αντιλυτρον but the meaning is identical. Cf. Büchsel, ‘lutron’, p. 349.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid., p. 350.

30 Ibid.

31 The New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989).

32 Büchsel, ‘lutron’, p. 352.

33 Büchsel, F., ‘αγοραζω, εξαγοραζῶ’, in Kittel, Gerhard (ed.), Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (tr.), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), p. 125Google Scholar.

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36 New Revised Standard Version.

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45 Ibid.

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47 David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (eds), Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 43, Philippians, by Gerald F. Hawthorne (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), p. 60.

48 Ibid., p. 144.

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50 I'm thinking of commercials that make this notion explicit like L'Oreal (‘You're worth it’) and Daytimer (‘It's all about you’) but the implicit assumption runs throughout advertising.

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57 Bartchy, S. S., ‘Slavery’, in Bromily, Geoffrey W. (ed.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988), p. 544Google Scholar.

58 Ibid.

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60 Ibid., p. 313.

61 Fortune, ‘Transformation of Suffering’, p. 142.

62 Ibid.

63 In my own experience I know of a friend who was raped but says that God has used that negative experience to strengthen her in certain ways. I also know of someone who was abused by a leader in her church and has since left the faith. My point is that these sorts of experiences are evil – nothing more, nothing less – and that the outcome seems dependent on the help available to the victim.

64 Rev. 21:1–4.