Violence in Christian Theology

(5.) For an analysis of retributive justice, with restorative justice as the suggested alternative, see Howard Zehr, Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice, A Christian Peace Shelf Selection (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1990).

(6.) Southern, Saint Anselm, 221-27.

(7.) Ibid.

(8.) Catherine Pickstock pushes this argument the farthest, but it is also used by Margo Houts and Nancy Duff. See Catherine Pickstock, After Writing: On the Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998), 155-57; Margo G. Houts, "Atonement and Abuse: An Alternative View," Daughters of Sarah 18, no. 3 (1992 Summer 1992): 30; Nancy J. Duff, "Atonement and the Christian Life: Reformed Doctrine from a Feminist Perspective," Interpretation 53, no. I (January 1999): 24.

(9.) The seminal treatment of the changes in the church symbolized by Constantine is John Howard Yoder, "The Constantinian Sources of Western Social Ethics," in The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame, 1984), 135-47, as well as John H. Yoder, "The Disavowal of Constantine: An Alternative Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue," in The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiological and Ecumenical, ed. and introd. Michael G. Cartwright, foreword Richard J. Mouw (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), 242-61, and John H. Yoder, "The Otherness of the Church," in The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiological and Ecumenical ed. and introd. Michael G. Cartwright, foreword Richard J. Mouw (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), 53--64. H. A. Drake has shown that Constantine himself pursued a policy of tolerance, and that the changes he symbolizes and the move toward enforcing one prescribed faith actually occurred in the decades following Constantine. H. A. Drake, Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2000).

(10.) James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed, rev. ed. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis books, 1997), 42--49, 211--12.

(11.) See references in note 9.

(12.) Argument made by William Placher. William C. Placher, "Christ Takes Our Place: Rethinking Atonement," Interpretation 53, no. 1 [January 1999]: 15. Applying the assertion in the book of Hebrews that the death of Christ is the end of all sacrifice, John H. Yoder makes the same application of satisfaction atonement as does Placher. H. Wayne House and John Howard Yoder, The Death Penalty Debate: Two Opposing Views of Capital Punishment (Dallas: Ward Publishing, 1991), 158--60. However, Yoder does not thereby validate satisfaction atonement. In fact, he stated that he shared discomfort with the retributive assumptions of satisfaction atonement. But Yoder then argued that the psychic desire for punishment is so pervasive that in seeking to reduce the violence that comes with exercise of the death penalty, we would do better to accept the assumption of retribution and then argue that the death of Jesus ended the need for retribution rather than to challenge the assumption with alternative theology. John Howard Yoder, The Case for Punishment (John Howard Yoder's Home Page, 1995), ch. 5, 9, Accessed July 1, 2000, www.nd.edu/*theo/jhy/writings/home/welcome.htm. Regarding atonement, Yoder's purpose was to reduce the violence of capital punishment and his comment is neither a defense of satisfaction atonement nor a clear statement opposing development of a theological alternative to it.