The Atonement: The Congregational Union Lecture for 1875

R.W. Dale begins his study of the atonement by distinguishing the death of Christ as a fact and the doctrine or theory concerning it. An important distinction, for it is not the doctrine of the death of Christ that atones for human sin, but the death itself. Dale’s object in these lectures is “to show that there is a direct relation between the death of Christ and the remission of sins, and to investigate the principles and grounds of that relation; first, to establish a fact, and then to attempt the construction of a theory.” Dale examines the Passion of Christ, Christ’s words regarding the atonement, the apostolic testimony to the atonement, and several conflicting theories about it.