First, Stump’s two seemingly independent “further problems” for theorists of atonement (discussed in the penultimate section of her paper) in fact reduce to a single challenge, which suggests a strategy for future theorizing about the atonement. She then uses those conditions to critically evaluate Anselmian and Thomistic theories of atonement, arguing (among many other interesting things) that the Thomist has a leg up on the Anselmian when it comes to the atonement-motivating problem of human sin (pp.11-12 of ms.). North British Review, 1868.In “The Nature of the Atonement”, Eleonore Stump explores the problem of human sin that the atonement is meant to solve, helpfully uncovering important adequacy conditions for theories of atonement. Yet when we have found a mechanical theory by which the phenomena of inorganic matter can be mathematically deduced from the motion of materials endowed with a few simple properties, we must not forget that Democritus, Leucippus, and Epicurus began the work and we may even now recognize their merit, and acknowledge Lucretius not only as a great poet, but as the clear expositor of a very remarkable theory of the constitution of matter. We are not wholly without hope that the real weight of each atom may some day be known, and their number in each material that the form and motion of the parts of each atom, and the distance they are separated, may be calculated that the motions by which they produce light, heat, and electricity may be illustrated by exact geometrical diagrams then the motion of the spheres will be neglected for a while, in admiration of the maze in which the tiny atoms turn.
The description of the Lucretian atom is wonderfully applicable to the chemical atom, the existence of which, already quite a complex little world, is highly probable.
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