Moral Influence Theory of Atonement - Common Criticisms of The Moral Influence View

Common Criticisms of The Moral Influence View

The following are some of the criticisms and objections commonly made, fairly or unfairly, against the moral influence view:

  • It underestimates the seriousness of sin.
  • It teaches that humans have to save themselves.
  • It teaches salvation by moral effort alone.
  • It does not support the uniqueness of Christianity.
  • It denies the essential importance of the passion and death of Jesus.
  • It underestimates the wrath of God against sin.
  • It contradicts various biblical passages.

Yet, in conjunction with the ransom theory of atonement, it was likely the principal theological understanding of atonement in Christianity for the first thousand years of the Christian theology, and traces of it remain in Thomistic soteriology and the soteriology of Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy.

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