Responsibility And Atonement

When we do good or harm to others we acquire merit or guilt, deserve praise or blame, reward or punishment, and we may need to make atonement. Others may need to forgive us, or show us mercy. In the first part of this book, the author gives an account of how these moral concepts apply to humans in their dealings with each other. In the second part, he applies the results of Part 1 to reach conclusions about which versions of traditional Christian doctrines utilizing these notions are morally acceptable. He considers the doctrines of sin and original sin, redemption, sanctification, heaven, and hell. - ;Preface; Introduction; PART I: Responsibility: Moral goodness; Moral responsibility and weakness of will; The relevance of free will; Merit and reward; Guilt, atonement, and forgiveness; Punishment; Man's moral condition; PART II: Its Theological Consequences: Morality under God; Sin and original sin; Redemption; Sanctification and corruption; Heaven and hell; Additional notes -

An insightful exploration of the Christian doctrine of atonement, and how it relates to the experience of grace in everyday life. Drawing on biblical texts and theological reasoning, this book offers a fresh and compelling perspective on one of the central tenets of the Christian faith. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Roy L. Brooks reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. Atonement and Forgiveness shifts the focus of the issue from the backward-looking question of compensation for victims to a more forward-looking racial reconciliation. Offering a comprehensive discussion of the history of the black redress movement, this book puts forward a powerful new plan for repairing the damaged relationship between the federal government and black Americans in the aftermath of 240 years of slavery and another 100 years of government-sanctioned racial segregation. Key to Brooks's vision is the government's clear signal that it understands the magnitude of the atrocity it committed against an innocent people, that it takes full responsibility, and that it publicly requests forgiveness—in other words, that it apologizes. The government must make that apology believable, Brooks explains, by a tangible act that turns the rhetoric of apology into a meaningful, material reality, that is, by reparation. Apology and reparation together constitute atonement. Atonement, in turn, imposes a reciprocal civic obligation on black Americans to forgive, which allows black Americans to start relinquishing racial resentment and to begin trusting the government's commitment to racial equality. Brooks's bold proposal situates the argument for reparations within a larger, international framework—namely, a post-Holocaust vision of government responsibility for genocide, slavery, apartheid, and similar acts of injustice. Atonement and Forgiveness makes a passionate, convincing case that only with this spirit of heightened morality, identity, egalitarianism, and restorative justice can genuine racial reconciliation take place in America.

Excerpt from The Atonement, Viewed as Assumed Divine Responsibility: Traced as the Fact Attested in Divine Revelation; Shown to Be the Truth Uniting Christian Theories; And Recognized as the Grace Realized in Human Experience The theological use of the word atonement, has grown out of a human conviction so universal that no people on earth, however obscure or rude, has yet been found, into whose language the New Testament could not be translated; a fact which demonstrates that the idea of atonement, and the words expressive of that idea, are as much a part of human instinct as the words for water and bread. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Comprising groundbreaking dialogues by many of the most prominent scholars in Christian apologetics and the philosophy of religion, this volume offers a definitive treatment of central questions of Christian faith. The essays are ecumenical and broadly Christian, in the spirit of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, and feature lucid and up-to-date material designed to engage readers in contemporary theistic and Christian issues. Beginning with dialogues about God's existence and the coherence of theism and then moving beyond generic theism to address significant debates over such specifically Christian doctrines as the Trinity and the resurrection of Jesus, Debating Christian Theism provides an ideal starting point for anyone seeking to understand the current debates in Christian theology.