The Ill-Made Knight and the Stain on the Soul

Eleonore Stump’s Atonement is a masterful and historic contribution to the project of Christian soteriology. Among its many virtues is the fact that it manages to be richly novel and innovative while at the same time hewing close and doing justice to what has been most widely and traditionally affirmed about the salvific work of Christ. One of the most interesting and important novelties in the book is her treatment of what she, following Aquinas, calls the problem of the stain on the soul. Chapter 3 presents this problem and Stump’s solution to it, explains why her solution falls short, and then suggests an alternative way of addressing it.