How Penal Substitution Addresses Our Shame: The Bible’s Shame Dynamics and Their Relationships to Evangelical Doctrine

Abstract

Growing awareness of shame’s presence and problems in the West has drawn increasing levels of attention to the topic in Western scholarship. In the face of this attention on shame, theologians, missiologists, and counsellors of various stripes have been calling for a rearticulation or reformulation of the doctrine of atonement to address the presenting problem. Some have argued that the doctrine of penal substitution should be abandoned because of its inability to provide a solution. This dissertation argues that those advocating for such reformulation have not paid sufficient attention either to the Bible’s own presentation of shame problems and their scriptural solution, or to the exegetical grounding and theological presentation of evangelical doctrine. By providing careful analysis of the use of shame categories within the text of Scripture, this dissertation shows that those categories are integrally related to the classic doctrine of salvation within the framework of the new covenant inaugurated by penal substitutionary atonement. The exegetical and theological evidence leads to the conclusion that a move away from penal substitutionary atonement is not necessary or appropriate, and that the key to communicating the gospel to people who are sensitive to shame dynamics is becoming fluent with Scripture’s own presentation of those dynamics and with the biblical connections which relate those dynamics to other doctrines.