09.05.07

a community called atonement

Posted in gospel, hermeneutics, theology at 6:00 am by len

Geoff Holsclaw writes,

Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement has been the most refreshing read in a long time … instead of choosing one metaphor for the atonement, say ‘penal substitution,’ and reducing or re-reading all other metaphors down to aspects of ‘penal substitution’, McKnight suggests that we allow all of the atonement metaphors to live together. His favorite example is golf: why play a hole using the same club off the tee, on the fairway, and on the green, when there are many clubs from which to choose. Just as we play golf with a variety of clubs, so too should we speak of the atonement using the various metaphors supplied by the Scriptures. In a deft handling of the biblical, historical, and theological material, McKnight reintroduces evangelicals to the theory of ‘recapitulation’ of Irenaeus and Athanasius, or as he calls it, ‘identification of incorporation.’ Christ identifies with humanity in every way so that we can be incorporated into Christ in every way. In a certain sense, McKnight is revitalizing theosis for moderate evangelicals (that’s the term he uses for himself).

“Atonement language includes several evocative metaphors: there is a sacrificial metaphor (offering), and a legal metaphor (justification), and an interpersonal metaphor (reconciliation), and a commercial metaphor (redemption) and a military metaphor (ransom). Each is designed to carry us…to the thing. But the metaphor is not the thing. The metaphor gives the reader or hearer an imagination of the thing, a vision of the thing, a window onto the thing, a lens through which to look in order to see the thing. Metaphors take us there, but they are not the “there”, (38)

and,

“Atonement theories are imaginative metaphors that speak of the concrete reality of what God does through Jesus Christ” (37).

More…

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