On the sources of the traditional protestant theory of atonement

In this article, the author considers the sources that formed the traditional Protestant theory of atonement, known as the “Teory of Penal Substitution”. Te author considers the views of Anselm of Canterbury with respect to atonement and analyzes their further development and modification by various thinkers of Western scholasticism of the 12th - 13th centuries. Te author shows that the key ideas of Anselm - on justice, satisfaction of God’s honor, punishment for sin, and the place of the devil in the doctrine of atonement - formed the basis for later ideas about Christ’s passion on the Cross and subsequently influenced the Protestant theory of Penal Substitution. In conclusion, the author confirms the thesis articulated by Jaroslav Pelikan that the doctrine of atonement proposed by Anselm of Canterbury was formative in defining the views on atonement in the Latin West. Te article makes a contribution to the theological and historical scholarship of the sources of traditional Protestant atonement theory.