University of Virginia Library

PROPITIATION:

the removal of WRATH by the offering of SACRIFICES or gifts. In the HEBREW BIBLE the idea of propitiation is linked to RITUAL sacrifices offered by PRIESTS at the TEMPLE in JERUSALEM. In the NEW TESTAMENT it is associated with the DEATH OF CHRIST in passages like Romans 3:24. Modern critics often object to the idea on the grounds that it requires a notion of a wrathful GOD arguing instead that God is LOVE.