Gustaf Aulén

Life

Aulén was born in 1879 in southern Sweden and studied theology at Uppsala University. In 1913 he became professor of systematic theology, the branch of theology that sets out the content of the faith in an orderly way, at Lund University. In 1933 he became bishop of the Diocese of Strängnäs in the Church of Sweden, then the state church, and served until 1952. During World War II he is known to have supported the Church of Norway's resistance to the Nazi occupation. He continued to write after his retirement and died in Lund in 1977.

Ministry and Contributions

Aulén is regarded, together with his colleague Anders Nygren, as a leading figure in the theological movement known as the "Lund school." The Lund school sought to identify the distinctive core themes of the Christian faith by rereading the theology of Martin Luther and the early church.

His best-known work is a collection of lectures published in Swedish in 1930, which appeared in English the following year as Christus Victor and was widely read. In this book he classified the church's understanding of the atonement into three types.

• Classic (dramatic) type: Christ, through the cross and resurrection, conquered the powers of evil, such as sin, death, and Satan, and set humanity free. Aulén regarded this as the predominant understanding of the early church fathers.
• Latin type: Represented by the medieval theologian Anselm, this type belongs to the family of "satisfaction" theories, which hold that Christ rendered to God, on humanity's behalf, a satisfaction that human beings could not pay.
• Subjective type: Represented by Abelard and others, this type emphasizes that the love displayed on the cross moves and transforms the human heart.

Aulén argued that the classic type is closest to the understanding of the New Testament and the early church. He held that Luther revived this view but that later Lutheran orthodoxy drifted toward the Latin type. He also wrote the dogmatic work The Faith of the Christian Church, and he is known to have taken an interest in church music and hymnody and to have composed music. He also took part in the ecumenical movement.

Influence on the Korean Church

Christus Victor is known to have been translated into Korean. In Korean seminaries, Aulén's threefold classification is frequently used in systematic theology courses and textbooks to organize the doctrine of the atonement. In recent years, the view of the cross as a victory over the powers of evil has drawn renewed attention in preaching and theological discussion in Korea, and Aulén is often cited as a starting point in these discussions.

Assessment

Aulén is credited with reviving the theme of "victory," which had been neglected in the Western church, and with providing a framework for the discussion of the atonement. He has also faced criticism.

• Historical account: Some contend that he oversimplified the diverse views of the patristic and medieval periods by reducing them to three types.
• Interpretation of Luther: Some object that his interpretation of Luther was one-sided.
• Understanding of penal substitution: Some Reformed and evangelical theologians hold that Aulén did not adequately address the biblical basis for penal substitution, the view that Christ bore in their place the punishment due to sinners. They maintain that the theme of victory should be understood together with substitutionary atonement.