A Sojourner's Quest

1 9 6 / A S O J O U R N E R ’ S Q U E S T

When I look a Buddhist friend in the face, I cannot say with integrity: “Our story about Jesus’ virginal birth is true and factual. Your story that when the Buddha came out of his mother’s womb, he was walking, talking, teaching, and preaching (which I must admit is even better than our story) – that’s a myth. We have the truth; you have a lie.” I don’t think that can be said any longer, for our insistence that our faith is fact and that others’ faith is a lie is, I think, a cancer that eats at the heart of Christianity.

~ William F. Buckley, Jr. Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? Paul Copan, ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. p. 39.

Christus Victor: The Warrior Who Is Messiah

Ps. 68.10 – You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there. Ps. 110.1-2 – The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! [ Christus Victor’s ] central theme is the idea of the Atonement as a Divine conflict and victory; Christ – Christus Victor – fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world, the ‘tyrant’ under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, and in him God re- conciles the world to himself . . . . The background of the idea is dualistic; God is pictured as in Christ carrying through a victorious conflict against powers of evil which are hostile to his will. This constitutes Atonement, because the drama is a cosmic drama, and the victory over the powers bring to pass a new relation, a relation of reconciliation, between God and the world; and, still more, be- cause in a measure the hostile powers are regarded as in the service of the will of God the Judge of all, and the executants of his judg- ment. Seen from this side, the triumph over the opposing powers is regarded as a reconciling of God himself; he is reconciled by the very act in which he reconciles the world to himself.

~ Gustaf Aulen, Christus Victor. New York: MacMillan Publishers, 1969. pp. 20-21.