<i>Christus Victor</i> Revisited: A Proposal for a Thoroughly Dramatic View of the Atonement

Abstract When Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulén published his influential work on atonement, Christus Victor , he termed what he took to be the classical view of atonement “dramatic.” This article enters into critical dialogue with Aulén in order to discuss the necessary conditions for a thoroughly dramatic view of atonement. The article shows that Aulén’s conception of atonement in Christus Victor is not dramatic in a technical sense, but that this increasingly becomes the case in the later The Drama and the Symbols . Furthermore, the article proposes three necessary preconditions for a thoroughly dramatic view of atonement: (i) dramatic dimensionality between author, actor, and director; (ii) drama’s character of event ; and (iii) drama’s genre . Lastly, the article outlines a proposal for a thoroughly dramatic view of atonement.