We Are the Angry Deity

Quote by Fr. James Alison

We are the angry divinity. We are the ones inclined to dwell in wrath and think we need vengeance in order to survive ... it turns on its head what has passed as our penal substitutionary theory of atonement, which always presupposes that it is us satisfying God, that God needs satisfying, that there is vengeance in God. Whereas it is quite clear from the New Testament that what was really exciting to Paul was that it was quite clear from Jesus self-giving, and the out-pouring of Jesus blood, that this was the revelation of who God was: God was entirely without vengeance, entirely without substitutionary tricks; and that he was giving himself entirely without ambivalence and ambiguity for us, towards us, in order to set us free from our sins, our sins being our way of being bound up with each other in death, vengeance, violence and what is commonly called wrath."

http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_8/alison.htm

Quote by Fr. James Alison