Atonement: The Weight of Guilt and the Need for Sacrifice - Anglican (Isaiah 53)

In Atonement, Briony's false accusation destroys lives. She spends her life seeking atonement she can never fully achieve—rewriting history in fiction, serving as a nurse among the wounded. The film asks: how can wrongs be made right? Anglican theology holds together multiple atonement images: Christ as substitute bearing guilt, as victor defeating evil, as example showing love. Isaiah 53 contains them all: bearing iniquity, making intercession, justifying many. The via media doesn't force a single theory but receives the mystery: somehow, through this Servant's suffering, we are healed. The Prayer Book's eucharistic prayers echo this scriptural range.