{"id":26,"date":"2011-03-27T00:45:43","date_gmt":"2011-03-27T00:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/?p=26"},"modified":"2015-11-30T17:47:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T17:47:10","slug":"scott-mcknights-a-community-called-atonement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/scott-mcknights-a-community-called-atonement\/ ","title":{"rendered":"Scott McKnight’s “A Community Called Atonement”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atonement Theology, or how we understand the meaning and consequence of the death of Jesus on a Roman cross has been a much discussed topic in the last decade. I believe this is a very good thing to be asking these big questions about what is at the very heart of the Christian Faith.<\/p>\n

If my history is right, we have William Tyndale to thank for the coinage of our english word atonement<\/a>. \u00a0Atonement being\u00a0a concatenation of the words ‘At One’ to describe Christ’s work of restoring a good relationship — a reconciliation — between God and people.<\/p>\n

If you are like me, you came out of a tradition that explained the totality of what Jesus did through the Cross strictly in Penal Substitutionary<\/a> terms. This might have been the only lens in which you have seen what Christ has done for us. According to Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

“Penal substitution<\/strong> (sometimes, esp. in older writings, called\u00a0forensic theory<\/em>) <\/span>is a theory of the atonement\u00a0within Christian Theology, developed with the Reformed\u00a0tradition. <\/span>It argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished (penalised) in the place of sinners (substitution), thus satisfying\u00a0\u00a0the demands of justice\u00a0so\u00a0God can justly\u00a0forgive the sins. It is thus a specific understanding of\u00a0substitutionary\u00a0atonement, where the substitutionary nature of\u00a0Jesus’ death is understood in the sense of a substitutionary punishment.”<\/p>\n

Along with this strict interpretation, the dots might not have been connected between Jesus “Kingdom”message and his death on a Roman cross.<\/p>\n

In Scott McKnight’s<\/a> book, “A Community Called Atonement: Living Theology<\/a>\"\"“, he argues quite\u00a0persuasively\u00a0for a more comprehensive and varied understanding of the\u00a0atoning\u00a0work of Jesus. Scott begins his exploration\u00a0and\u00a0explanation of the atonement by\u00a0likening the various New\u00a0Testament\u00a0atonement metaphors to the many golf-clubs that are needed in playing a good game of Golf. He says if we were to only use one club\/metaphor for an exhaustive explanation of what is happening with Jesus going to the cross then we will be playing a very poor game of golf.<\/p>\n

Scott explores the proper understanding or\u00a0Metaphors; the reality to which they point as well as a metaphors limits\u00a0. He explores the question, “What did Jesus think of his death?” \u00a0He gives good summary of the main atonement metaphor categories: Identification for Incorporation, Recapitulation, Ransom<\/em>\/Christus Victor, Satisfaction, Substituion, Representation, Penal Substitution. \u00a0I feel that Scott McKnight has done us all a great service by \u00a0framing the atonement in the manner that he has. Thank you. : )<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object>