Logos 2014

Logos 2014

The Atonement

May 8-10, 2014 at the University of Notre Dame

The focal point of the Christian religion is what is often referred to as “the Christ event”—an event that includes the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity in Jesus of Nazareth, as well as his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. The atonement is a crucial part of this event. But, despite the absolute centrality of the atonement to Christian faith and practice, there are widely divergent theories about just which events constitute the atonement, about what exactly is accomplished in the atonement, and about how the events that constitute the atonement contribute to human salvation (whatever exactly that encompasses) and to whatever other ends were achieved by the atoning work of Christ. These and related issues (e.g., about the nature of atonement, reconciliation, and forgiveness in general) comprise the topic for the 2014 Logos Workshop in Philosophical Theology.

Artwork by Makoto Fujimura


Thursday, May 8

11:10am - 12:30pm     Joy Ann McDougall – Emory University, Candler School of Theology
“The Bondage of the Eye/I and the Gift of New Life: Gendering a Theology of Sin and Grace”

  • Commentator: Cristian Mihut – Bethel College
  • Chair: Alicia Finch – Northern Illinois University

2:30pm - 3:50pm     Joshua Thurow – The University of Texas at San Antonio
“Communal Substitutionary Atonement”

  • Commentator: Steve L. Porter – Biola University
  • Chair: Jessica Wilson – Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

4:00pm - 5:20pm     Jill Graper Hernandez – The University of Texas at San Antonio
“Acquainted with Grief: the Atonement and Early Feminist Conceptions of Theodicy”

  • Commentator: Amy Peeler – Wheaton College
  • Chair: Kevin Diller – Taylor University

Friday, May 9

11:10am - 12:30pm      Katherine Sonderegger – Virginia Theological Seminary
“How does Christ's Death Satisfy?”

  • Commentator: Lacey Hudspeth – Emory University, Candler School of Theology
  • Chair: Oliver Crisp – Fuller Theological Seminary

2:30pm - 3:50pm     Peter Martens – Saint Louis University
“Reconsidering Gustaf Aulen's, Christus Victor: Toward a New Analysis of the Patristic Doctrine of Atonement”

  • Commentator: Douglas Hedley – University of Cambridge
  • Chair: Marilie Coetsee – Rutgers University

4:00pm - 5:20pm     Jada Twedt Strabbing – Fordham University
“The Permissibility of the Atonement as Penal Substitution”

  • Commentator: Thomas Schartl - University of Augsburg
  • Chair: Alan Torrance – University of St Andrews

7:15pm     William J. Abraham – Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology
"Atonement and History, Pennies and Scents"

  • Chair: Hud Hudson – Western Washington University

Saturday, May 10

10:40am - 12:00pm     Ryan Davis – Harvard University
“The Authority of God and the Meaning of the Atonement”

  • Commentator: Thomas McCall – Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
  • Chair: Andrea C. White – Emory University, Candler School of Theology

2:00pm - 3:20pm     Marilyn McCord Adams – Australian Catholic University & Rutgers University
“Atonement as Friendship and Friendship Reconciled”

  • Commentator: Linda Radzik – Texas A&M University
  • Chair: Thomas Senor – University of Arkansas

3:30pm - 4:50pm     Thomas Williams – University of South Florida
“Anselm on Atonement: A Defense”

  • Commentator: Daniel Howard-Snyder – Western Washington University
  • Chair: Leigh Vicens - Augustana College