ABSTRACT
Early Christian writings on atonement are not chiefly in the business of presenting theories, if by theory the readers mean something like a systematic account of how, exactly—by what means, or through what sort of transaction or mechanism—Christ accomplishes reconciliation between God and humanity. The influence of Anselm on later medieval thinking on the atonement can be seen in the centrality of the notion of satisfaction. But there are other concepts and themes, not present or not prominent in Anselm, that come to play important roles in scholastic discussions of atonement. The fourth way in which Christ’s passion affects human salvation is as a redemption. Aquinas does not seek to bring the disparate themes—as well as others that arise elsewhere in his discussions of the atonement—into any systematic coherence, and scholarly attempts to impose a rigid conceptual scheme of hierarchical or conceptual relationships on this variety of elements are unconvincing.
