To countless Christian minds the doctrine of the atone-
ment has been the marrow of theology. We have re-
served it for the close of our discussion. Does the social
gospel contain anything which would verify, interpret,
quicken, or expand that doctrine? And what form of
the doctrine would best express and support the social
gospel?

The theological interpretation of the death of Christ
has a long and varied history. It will aid us in estimat-
ing our modern needs if we pass it briefly in review.

To the first disciples the death of their Lord was an
astonishing catastrophe, an unexpected, terrible, and ap-
parently impossible outcome of the work of the Messiah.
For that very reason they craved an explanation of the
event which would interpret it as a fundamental part of
God's plan. Their method was to prove that it had been
foretold throughout the Scripture and foreshadowed by
typology. Paul was the first to give the death of our
Lord a really central position in a theological system.

But the early Church never appropriated or utilized
more than a few leading ideas of Paul. The most popu-
lar and elaborate theological explanation was the theory
that Christ's death was a ransom paid to Satan. By the
fall the human race became subject to Satan, and he had

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