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Overview
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.
Synopsis
A compelling examination of the doctrine of atonement that invites readers to live out Christ's atonement as a way of life.
Steve Young - Library Journal
"Emerging church" theologian (Embracing Grace) and blogger McKnight writes this first volume of Abingdon's "Living Theology" series, which offers brief, nontechnical, contemporary analyses of traditional theological topics. He provides an excitingly suggestive understanding of how in Christian theology Christ's death sets things right that were broken by sin. "Things" here means not just relations between the individual and God (the traditional emphasis) but among other humans and with the world as well. While classical images of atonement address aspects of Christ's work, no single metaphor here tells the whole story. Instead, McKnight completes his presentation with a section on how atonement is made real in the daily practices of the church-an aspect of the doctrine often neglected. While affirming classical views, the author is less impressed with recent critical approaches to the doctrine; the reservations of feminists and liberation theologians are curtly dismissed. (A better engagement with such interests is found in J. Denny Weaver's The Nonviolent Atonement.) Nevertheless, McKnight offers important corrections and modifications of an often misunderstood doctrine. Recommended for all academic libraries and for collections in theology and religion.
Editorials
Library Journal
"Emerging church" theologian (Embracing Grace) and blogger McKnight writes this first volume of Abingdon's "Living Theology" series, which offers brief, nontechnical, contemporary analyses of traditional theological topics. He provides an excitingly suggestive understanding of how in Christian theology Christ's death sets things right that were broken by sin. "Things" here means not just relations between the individual and God (the traditional emphasis) but among other humans and with the world as well. While classical images of atonement address aspects of Christ's work, no single metaphor here tells the whole story. Instead, McKnight completes his presentation with a section on how atonement is made real in the daily practices of the church-an aspect of the doctrine often neglected. While affirming classical views, the author is less impressed with recent critical approaches to the doctrine; the reservations of feminists and liberation theologians are curtly dismissed. (A better engagement with such interests is found in J. Denny Weaver's The Nonviolent Atonement.) Nevertheless, McKnight offers important corrections and modifications of an often misunderstood doctrine. Recommended for all academic libraries and for collections in theology and religion.
—Steve Young