There are two reasons you are being asked to read Stump's essay:
1. She summarizes and attacks a very popular current version of the theory that Jesus saves us by paying the price for our sin -- being punished by God in our place so that we don't have to be forever damned, or suffering the consequences of God's wrath in our place. This connects with the theory Markham summarizes under the heading "Christ Who Pays the Debt". So, pay attention to what her criticisms are. Some of them are the same as the ones Markham reports (on page 141) coming from Peter Abelard (a prominent Medieval Christian theologian).
2. She develops an alternative way of looking at what Jesus accomplishes, giving credit to St. Thomas Aquinas for this alternative. It doesn't matter for our purposes whether she is right about St. Thomas. What does matter for our purposes is that her ideas are interesting and might be a good way to begin a contemporary approach that fits what Markham refers to as the "Moral Example" theory. Her approach is much more developed than the one described by Markham.
Because the later parts of the essay become more difficult to work with, we will work off just the first ten pages, and these should be printed to bring to class. Of course, you are welcome to read the rest!
To turn in:
Fill in as many of the answers as you can in the "Christian Soteriology" study guide for Stump's version of what Jesus does to bring salvation. (You might not have enough to work with to answer all of them, but with a little thought, you should be able to come up with something for several of the questions.) Here's a link to the guide, if you haven't already printed it out from before.
To do this, assume that the stories Stump tells about the breakdown between parent and child are the key. You might imagine ways the basic story could be added to or changed to make it more analogous to the situation regarding the relation between people, Jesus, and God. Stump gives us some ideas about how this might be done.
Obviously, in the basic story, the older brother is supposed to be the analog of Jesus, the mother is the analog of God, and human beings other than Jesus are the little brother. Think about what overcoming sin means in the story, and about the various kinds of things the older brother could do to assist with overcoming sin. Think about whether there is a potential place for punishment in the story, and if so would the mother punish the older brother? What would the purpose of the punishment be? (This will show how very different from the penal substitution view Stump's story is.)
(Here's a tough one: Is there any specific way the story might be developed or interpreted so that there is a clear analog to Jesus' being executed and resurrected? If you have thoughts about this question, make a note of them so that you can bring them up in class. Those of you looking for extra credit on this homework, put your thoughts about this question at the end of your study guide that you are turning in.)