Died for us?

The basis of all Christian dogma is the atoning death of Christ. This means that Christ who is both God and man came into the world took the sins of mankind upon himself and sacrificed himself for their salvation. This is the Christian faith on which Christianity is built. Christ is therefore the representative of humanity before God. This is the belief or theology of Christianity to this day. In the Age of Enlightenment this basic dogma of Christianity was shaken by Immanuel Kant as Kant regarded Christ merely as a moral model teacher and example and advocated the thesis of moral indefensibility. This book uses the works of Dorothee Sölle and Joseph Ratzinger in an attempt to provide a Christian answer to Kant's question. Although the two theologians did not deal directly with Kant's question this book shows how they did so indirectly. It also shows how a Christian refutation of Kant's position in favor of a comprehensively understood doctrine of substitution might look.