12th century (synod of 1141)

Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux: the "moral influence theory"

Abelard rejected both the traditional view of the devil's rights over humanity and Anselm's theory of a debt to God, and doubted the necessity of a ransom: God could simply forgive, and to demand the blood of an innocent as the price seems cruel. The significance of Christ's death lies in its effect on us: the Son took our nature, teaching by word and example unto death, and seeing his love we are awakened to love in return, on the basis of which God forgives. His chief opponent was Bernard of Clairvaux: he held that Christ's example does not make us holy, just as Adam's example does not make us sinners, and believed in an objective atonement as the basis of the subjective, though he did not offer a theory of his own. The synod of 1141 condemned Abelard on the basis of a list of errors drawn up by Bernard.