New Divinity Theology

Charles Grandison Finney remains America's most controversial revivalist. However , despite a range of analysis in recent decades, his doctrine of atonement is still not completely understood in its entirety. Tailoring every facet of his thinking toward the goal of revivalism, Finney drew elements from different Protestant traditions in America in order to combine moral governmental and moral influence theories of atonement. It is the purpose of this article to articulate how Finney synthesized these two models, which occupied the more dominant space in his thinking, and why his view can best be described as a "governmental and influential substitution ."

Two ideas shaped early Southern Baptist theology more than any others: (1) God the Moral Governor works all things for his glory, and (2) in doing so, he also works for the highest good of his moral universe. While the ideas themselves did not change, God's moral government was an evolving concept. It is the aim of this article to demonstrate that moral governmental theory underwent a significant transition in the incipient years of the Southern Baptist Convention, from a robust doctrine of atonement drawn from the Edwardsean tradition to a doctrine of providence that still emphasized the glorious display of God's attributes and the Creator's benevolence toward his creatures. In these early years, the question was not necessarily which "theory" of atonement Southern Baptists affirmed, but which kinds of justice they upheld in the atonement underneath a broad moral governmental frame. Although the concept of moral government has since waned in Baptist life, its two signature principles, glory and goodness, left an indelible mark upon the Southern Baptist Convention.

As a spiritual classic, Religious Affections was read and celebrated by
Edwards’s contemporaries, disciples, and subsequent generations
of Christians. From William Wilberforce to Charles Finney, Religious
Affections has left an indelible mark upon the secular and religious
world, becoming “the most widely read and admired of [Edwards’s]
theological works.” By comparing the teleological language of Religious Affections with later revisions and other derivative works, this
article will demonstrate how Edwards bequeathed a specific grammar
of revival spirituality to his theological successors. While this shared
grammar was employed by theologians of different nationalities and
denominations, not all of Edwards’s admirers were willing or able to
employ his vocabulary in the same way or at all. The legacy of Jonathan Edwards’s teleological language in Religious Affections is the story
of a common grammar put to several different uses.

In the American moral governmental theory of the atonement, the idea of equivalence is best understood in terms of a countervailing, or the achieving of a moral equilibrium. According to Jonathan Edwards’ disciples, Christ's atonement was not quantifiably equivalent to the penalty of the law, but morally and meaningfully equivalent. In other words, Christ's physical and psychological sufferings were not equal in amount or degree to a sinner's damnation. Rather, Christ's substitution for divine punishment exhibited sufficient displeasure against sin to effectively communicate his character and to offset the evil effects of sin. At stake was not the moral quantity of his crucifixion, but the moral quality. In this moral governmental scheme, Christ's was not a commutative atonement, but a countervailing atonement.