ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as the entry point to the construction of the Relational Theory of the Atonement. The foundation for this theory is Thaddeus Metz’s Moral Relational Theory. This theory says that an act is right inasmuch as it is friendly. A person exhibits friendliness through identification with others and by expressing solidarity with others. This relational ethic sheds new light on the problem of sin, by emphasising the relational disharmony it produces between God and humans. When applied to the Atonement, the passion and death of Christ can be understood as the ultimate act of friendliness in exhibiting extremely high levels of solidarity and identification with humanity. This relational account reconciles humanity to God, thereby solving the backward-looking problem of sin. It also solves the forward-looking problem in removing the human disposition towards unfriendliness.
