Atonement in various religious traditions

According to Britannica.com, atonement is “the process by which a person removes obstacles to their reconciliation with G!d,” and a recurring theme in the history of religion and theology.

Most religions have rituals of atonement, whether primitive or developed, as the means by which the religious person re-establishes or strengthens their relation to the holy or divine. Atonement is often attached to some form or concept of sacrifice, connected to ritual cleanness with moral purity and religious acceptability. The term atonement developed in the English language in the 16th century by the combination of “at-onement,” meaning to “set at one,” or “to reconcile.”

In ancient cultures, offering sacrifices through priests was normal and even necessary to “please deities.” The ancient Greeks for a long period of time practiced the ritual of animal sacrifices involving sheep, swine, goats, and fowl, sometimes even crops, in order to maintain their relations with the divine power or appease angry gods who caused natural disasters. The Aztecs in Mexico in the Pre-Columbian era practiced human sacrifices, thought to be based on their belief that since humans were created by the sacrifice of the gods, they must reciprocate by offering human sacrifices. The ritual of human sacrifices was done in other ancient cultures as well.

The Christian view of atonement centers around the crucifixion of Jesus and how they interpret its meaning and significance as a vicarious means of sacrifice to effect one’s reconciliation with G!d, while Hinduism has a ritual of sacrifice, called yajna and more commonly practiced during Vedic times. When people commit sins, violating the dharma, they practice prayaschitta, involving fasting, chanting of mantras, charity, and pilgrimage, in order to atone with the gods and also with their fellow humans. This penance is also understood to help them toward their liberation from karma.

Buddhism is not theistic, so it has no real concept of atonement with G!d. It rather focuses on atonement with fellow humans, teaching the importance of forgiveness. The whole concept of forgiveness comes from the belief that it prevents both the offended and the offender from developing negative and harmful emotions from the karma that keeps them bound in sin and misery.

In Islamic theology, animal sacrifices are not directly linked to atonement; the sacrifice is done to help the poor, and in remembrance of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael at Allah’s command. The Qur’an teaches that the main way back to Allah is through genuine repentance. Depending on the sin, the requirements for atonement can range from repentance and compensation of the sin if possible, feeding the poor, freeing slaves to even stoning to death or cutting hands.

In ancient Judaism, a number of animal sacrifices were prescribed in the Torah to make atonement, a concept very different from salvation: a sin-offering for sins and a guilt-offering for religious trespasses. Rituals for atonement occurred in the Temple in Jerusalem, and were performed by the kohanim, the Israelite priests with the kohen gadol as their central figure. These services included song, prayer, offerings, and animal sacrifices known as the korbanot. The rites for Yom Kippur are prescribed in Leviticus. Of critical note is that animal sacrifices were not the only way to be restored to "at-one-ment" with G!d.

Not all Jews believed that sacrifice paid the debt for sins. Biblical prophets state that the hearts (kavannah) of the people were more important than their sacrifices (kevah). Although animal sacrifice was prescribed for atonement, the Jewish bible does not say that it is the only means of atonement. It is possible to return to G!d through repentance and prayer alone. The Hebrew word for repentance is teshuvah which literally means to “return to G!d,” which is very similar  in concept as atonement.

Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the moment in Jewish time when we dedicate our mind, body, and soul to reconciliation with G!d, our fellow human beings, and ourselves. In rabbinic thought, only the offending party can set the wrong aright and only the offended party can forgo the debt of the offense. This means that if I offend someone, it is my responsibility to set matters right, and if someone has offended me, it is my responsibility to allow the offender to do teshuva, to correct the wrong done to me.

There are three different Hebrew words translated as forgiveness, relating to various levels of forgiveness.  Mechila indicates a “forgoing the other’s indebtedness,” simply reaching the conclusion that the offender no longer owes anything for whatever it was that he or she did, and then only if the sinner is actually repentant. For example, severe abuse perpetrated on another might be forgiven as mechila if and only if the perpetrator has desisted from all abusive activity,, reformed their character through recognition of the sin, remorse, restitution, and confession, and finally, actually asked for forgiveness several times to the injured party.  S’licha is a deeper understanding of the sinner from the perspective of sympathy for the other, reaching the conclusion that the offender, too, is human, frail, and deserving of sympathy.

This principle of S’licha can also be found in the Alcoholics Anonymous “Big Book” on pages 66-7: “We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick, too. We asked G!d to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. …We avoid retaliation or argument. We wouldn’t treat sick people that way.”

Finally, there is  kappara or “atonement”,  a total wiping away of all sinfulness, sharing the same root from which we get the word kippur in Yom Kippur.

Furthermore, kapparot is also used to describe a ritual of swinging a live rooster overhead while reciting the prayer, “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This rooster (hen) will go to its death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.” The rooster or hen is then slaughtered according to shechita, and donated to charity. Please note that the practice of kapparot is strongly opposed by many due to animal cruelty, and not commonly practiced today. Some substitute swinging a bag of money rather than a live bird.  Kapparot was first mentioned by Amram Gaon in 670 CE, possibly being introduced because the Hebrew word גבר means both “man” and “rooster.”

In any case, kappara describes the ultimate form of forgiveness, but it cannot be granted by humans, but is only granted by G!d. No human can “atone” the sin of another; no human can “purify” the spiritual pollution of another, according to Jewish thought.

Most religions usually teach the importance of the interaction between genuine repentance and forgiveness for atonement. Various cultures and religions in the world have been practicing a variety of ways of expiation for atonement throughout the millenia: animal sacrifices, human sacrifices, crops offering, fasting, prayer, repentance, apology, charity, etc.

While human sacrifices were sometimes practiced only in ancient cultures, the vicarious death of a priestly figure is absent in all cultures and religions except Christianity. The Christian teaching that Jesus, seen in his role as priest, had to die on the cross as a sacrifice for other humans seems to be unusual.

Christian Piatt’s article on patheos.com, “Why Blood Atonement Theology Weakens G!d,” lists three reasons why he does not embrace the standard “blood atonement” of Christianity, and concludes, “…there’s nothing I can do to help G!d be G!d, including participating in some kind of necessary sacrifice to satisfy a G!d that needs something from me. …So to believe Jesus had to be crucified for us to be forgiven means that, had we not killed Jesus, G!d could not have saved us.” Mr. Piatt ponders, “What is it about the shedding of innocent blood that makes anything better? This seems to go against everything the Bible points toward, such as mercy, love, compassion and peace.”

At the end of the day, perhaps the at-one-ment best sought is that in our own individual hearts and souls that puts us right with our fellow humans, and aligns us with our Highest and Best versions of ourselves. Even the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous finds wisdom in this, outlining a path of practical spiritual living to reach this concept. Their summation of living to one’s highest potential and growing along spiritual lines is outlined in the “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous, a tome owned by no specific religion nor endorsing nor allied with any particular sect or denomination, yet filled with guiding wisdom and a distillation of deep spiritual concepts in easy to understand language and practical ways to live.