Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 23:3 (Fall 2019)
Article: How Penal Substitution Addresses Our Shame: The Bible’s Shame Dynamics And Their Relationships To Evangelical Doctrine
Author: David E. Rennalls

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

David E. Rennalls

David E. Rennalls serves as Pastor of Discipleship at the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He earned his MDiv from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, where he is also completing his PhD in systematic theology. He is writing on the subject of this article, namely how a penal substitution view of the atonement addresses our shame. He presented an earlier version of this article at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. David and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of three children.

Introduction

It is difficult not to notice how the notion of shame surfaces in the first chapters of Genesis1 and how the need for men and women to cover themselves from “the shame of their nakedness” remains in focus even as the canon comes to a close in Revelation.2 The dynamics of shame are intricately woven through the biblical storyline. A significant thrust of scholarship has argued, however, that the language of shame has been largely eclipsed by the language of guilt in western culture at large and in the western theological tradition in particular. An early and influential voice in the current discussion was anthropologist Ruth Benedict, who argued in 1946 that Japan and other Eastern civilizations were characterized by concepts of shame and

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honor which were foreign to the cultures of the West.3 Scholars following Benedict have shown that a hard distinction between “shame cultures” and “guilt cultures” cannot be maintained,4 but the growing awareness of shame’s presence in the West has drawn increasing levels of attention to the topic in western scholarship. Psychologists have sought to understand and describe the phenomenon of shame, its roots in the individual psyche, and its wider cultural underpinnings. They have defined shame using the categories of their discipline and sought to provide clinical solutions.5

Christians have sought solutions as well. Evangelists and missionaries have struggled to share the gospel among people who seem to have no category for guilt, and pastors have struggled to help those who are burdened by an overwhelming sense of disgrace, dishonor, and humiliation.6 They have searched the Scri...