atonement

So far in this series on different ways Christians have understood the saving work of Jesus, we’ve looked at one of what we might call a historical filter (Recapitulation) and two metaphors (the Passover and the Bridegroom). But none of these ever reached the complexity of what we might properly call an ‘atonement theory’. Today … Continue reading Christ our Champion: Christus Victor

For the most part this series on different ways Christians have understood the atonement, i.e., Christ’s saving work, will be focusing on the heaviest hitters, those images that have been the most influential or important in history. Today I’d like to do something a bit different, and think through a perspective that has never been … Continue reading Christ our Bridegroom

Last week, we started this series on the history of how Christians have understood the atonement — that is, what Jesus did that saved us — by looking at the notion of recapitulation, the idea that Jesus saved us by essentially rebooting humanity and being entirely faithful where both Adam and God’s chosen people both … Continue reading Christ our Passover

It’s always a fascinating exercise to think about what it would have been like to be among the first Christians. For, unlike us, they did not have a ‘New Testament’. They did not have a Christian tradition to fall back on. What those first Christians had was their Jewish Scriptures and theological traditions and an … Continue reading Christ the Fulfillment: The Doctrine of Recapitulation

One of the purposes of this blog is to talk about the Christian Gospel from different perspectives or through different lenses than many of us are used to. Sometimes this looks like challenging common assumptions through looking at the theological perspectives of groups that have not historically had a seat at the theological table (such … Continue reading Atonement Across the Ages: Introduction