Latter-day Saints and the Atonement in the New Testament

While Book of Mormon theology is normative for Latter-day Saint understandings of atonement, the earliest Latter-day Saints came from Protestant backgrounds. Because of this, the New Testament provided them with their basic understanding of what constituted Jesus’s salvific work and how believers benefited from it. While Anselm, Abelard, and Aulén are known for proposing overarching atonement theories, New Testament authors actually provide a great variety of models beyond vicarious sacrifice and penal substitution. This chapter surveys these models chronologically and by author, suggesting how they often overlap with specific Latter-day Saint interpretations, including nonviolent models centering on reconciliation, participation, healing, and deification.