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The second concern is that of individualizing the gospel. Penal substitution, argue Green and Baker, is tied in with an "autobiographical notion of justice" that operates on the basis of an atomistic understanding of people and leads to an individualistic understanding of justification. Concerned that the emphasis has so long been on the individual and his or her personal sin, Ray argues that "the emphasis now should be on the social," so that atonement theology can address not only individual sin, but also the evil of structures and institutions. Sin should not be defined as disobedience, because this "defuses rage, resentment, and other catalytic emotions, entrapping abused women and children in cycles of violence buttressed by cultural and religious assumptions of male authority and prerogative." Ray's steps are clear: she first wants to broaden sin and evil to include a communal and institutional element, and she then argues that this sin or evil is not a matter of disobedience but should be defined as "the abuse of power."
Finally, the fear is that an ahistorical and individualistic understanding of salvation allows for an abstract and harsh juridicizing where God's love and mercy and his desire to draw people into a relationship of love fade from view. Den Heyer rejects the notion of penal substitution in which "God cannot just let evil slip through his fingers. Forgiveness is possible only when the law has run its course. Sin must be punished." Similarly, Green and Baker argue that in the penal substitution model "God's ability to love and relate to humans is circumscribed by something outside of God—that is, an abstract concept of justice instructs God as to how God must behave."
There are points clearly worth heeding in these critiques of penal substitution. For example, Ray's retrieval of a Christus Victor model of the atonement draws on some significant biblical data. On the cross, Christ "disarmed the powers and authorities" and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Col 1:15). Looking at the atonement from the perspective of God's battle against evil does render significant support for the human struggle against injustice. And to be sure, an individualistic legal framework may indeed be used to justify sinful human structures and perhaps even to glorify suffering and tolerate abuse. Ray's penetrating account of the misuse of atonement theology in Latin America—where one identified either with Christ the Conquering One (who sanctions power) or with Christ the Conquered One (the model of the powerless)—reminds us of Christendom's complicity in horrific forms of cultural and ethnic violence. Den Heyer is right to point out that Jesus' life and death should function as a model that we are to imitate and that Jesus gives the "poor a new perspective and shows the rich how they can live" (cf. Mark 10:43-45). Finally, Green and Baker are helpful when they draw attention to the notions of shame and honor that need to complement those of guilt and justice; and we do well to learn from their understanding of the different voices in the one New Testament choir that make up a delicate harmony of "wonderful hints of powerful melodies contending with countermelodies."
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