A Community Called Atonement (Living Theology) - Softcover

McKnight, Scot

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687645549 ISBN 13: 9780687645541

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2007

Synopsis

Over the centuries the church developed a number of metaphors, such as penal substitution or the ransom theory, to speak about Christ's death on the cross and the theological concept of the atonement. Yet too often, says Scot McKnight, Christians have held to the supremacy of one metaphor over against the others, to their detriment. He argues instead that to plumb the rich theological depths of the atonement, we must consider all the metaphors of atonement and ask whether they each serve a larger purpose.

A Community Called Atonement is a constructive theology that not only values the church's atonement metaphors but also asserts that the atonement fundamentally shapes the life of the Christian and of the church. That is, Christ identifies with humans to call us into a community that reflects God's love (the church)--but that community then has the responsibility to offer God's love to others through missional practices of justice and fellowship, living out its life together as the story of God's reconciliation. Scot McKnight thus offers an accessible, thought-provoking theology of atonement that engages the concerns of those in the emerging church conversation and will be of interest to all those in the church and academy who are listening in.

About this title

About the Author

Scot McKnight is Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University in Chicago.

Review

"McKnight isn't advocating a mushy `let's all get along' evasion of the issues, which are many and important. But he is seeking to practice what we preach whenever we preach atonement: that God calls us to reconcile with God, ourselves, one another, and all creation. That means that the way we treat one another when we disagree about atonement can't be separated from what we preach when we preach atonement. Theory and praxis are profoundly inseparable. At this critical time in history, I believe we need, not atonement wars (or other kinds of theo-combat), but rather mature and generative conversation on atonement, so we can together go back to the Scriptures and in their light savor the rich meaning of Christ's saving work. A Community Called Atonement joins books by Willard, Boersma, Green, Baker, and others as an excellent and accessible resource for this conversation, informed by both current and historical scholarship." -- ----Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is an author, speaker, and former pastor active in the emergent conversation. His next book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, will be released October 2.

"Atonement theology, McKnight rightly insists, cannot operate with only one theory; it needs all of the biblical metaphors and each of the traditional atonement models. They all come together, he points out, in the patristic model of recapitulation--or, as he calls it, identification for incorporation. More than just being gutsy, orthodox, creative, as well as scholarly in character, this book actually atones; it models what it sets out to demonstrate, namely, that the church is summoned to work with God in his atoning work." -- Hans Boersma, J. I. Packer Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Regent College

"Few ideas are more central to Christian faith than the doctrine of atonement. And yet for too many atonement is merely that: a doctrine. In A Community Called Atonement, Scot McKnight takes the reader on a compelling, thorough, and creative exploration of the work of Christ and breathes into this doctrine a biblically robust understanding of God's intent for creation in Christ." -- Tim Keel, pastor of Jacob's Well Church and author of Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos

"It takes a village--or rather, an evangelical catholic community--to communicate everything McKnight wants to say about atonement. Sure both to stimulate imaginations and to raise hackles as it remixes biblical metaphors, integrates doctrine and praxis, and deconstructs one-sided theories of the saving significance of the cross, A Community Called Atonement may well turn out to be a theological manifesto called 'emergent.'" -- Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

About this edition

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0687645549
• ISBN 13: 9780687645541
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 177