Post-Enlightenment theology has frequently rejected the historic Christian doctrine of substitutionary atonement. For theologians standing in the tradition of the Lutheran Confessions, rejection of substitutionary atonement is particularly problematic because it endangers the unconditional nature of the justification through faith. If one rejects vicarious satisfaction, then the only alternative is to make redemption dependent on what sinners do for themselves. In this study, Jack Kilcrease argues for substitutionary atonement within the perspective of what he calls the «Confessional Lutheran Paradigm.» The author also critiques a wide variety of modern Lutheran theologians' understandings of atonement: Werner Elert, Gustaf Aulen, Gustaf Wingren, Robert Jenson, Eberhard Jungel, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Gerhard Forde. As Kilcrease demonstrates, although these authors often give many fine theological insights, their distortion or misrepresentation of the doctrine of atonement carriers over to a problematic understanding of law, gospel, and justification through faith.

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The gospel is the heart of the Christian faith, and the atonement is the heart of the gospel. In this work, Pastor Brandon Crawford offers a study of the doctrine of atonement as it was understood by America's greatest theologian–Jonathan Edwards–setting his doctrine in the context of both his historical predecessors and his broader theology. This book provides important insights into the mind of this intellectual giant and the critical role that Edwards played in the trajectory of New England theology in the decades following his death.

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Atonement. For some this word is the heart of the Christian faith. For others, it is irrelevant for Christianity and how they live their Christian lives. Often we do not see «the breadth and depth» of the atonement in the gospel. Christian D. Kettler, in his fourth book on «the vicarious humanity of Christ,» suggests that we consider that the atonement is not only a vicarious death in our place and on our behalf–whether in the form of a «penal substitute» or a «moral example»–but also his vicarious humanity, having atoning significance for all of our lives, indeed, all of reality: the church, the world, and the self. These essays are collected from several years of Kettler's thought on the doctrine of the vicarious humanity of Christ and its implications for all of life and reality, seeking to demonstrate that the doctrine of the atonement is not to be restricted to one small part of the doctrinal agenda, but has profound implications that theology sometimes does not explore. These issues include the nature of culture, aesthetics, creation out of nothing, spiritual formation, emotional weakness, the priesthood of Christ and creation, genetic engineering, and trusting in the «ideal» self.

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Why did Jesus die on the cross? Does the atonement have any spiritual significance? This book is a bold and imaginative endeavor to make atonement theology rational, in a fresh way, in our interreligious world. Seeking connections between Christian and Hindu thinking in order to create hermeneutical bridges, Godfrey Kesari aims to open up creative ways of reimagining the doctrine of the atonement, which is so central to the Christian message. Kesari retains the particularity of the unique events embracing the life, suffering, and death of Christ while linking clearly to the more universal considerations that are encountered within Visistadvaitic Hinduism. These explorations in turn contribute to a new way of seeing the Christian revelation. This is a ground-breaking work that attempts to find a way of treating and defending the centrality and theological significance of the atonement with contextual relevance.

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With the subject of the atonement of Christ attracting such a lot of polemical work at this time, it is easy to conclude that the current debate is generating more heat than light. Atonement Theories presents the beginning student, pastor, or researcher with an accessible and fair treatment of every school of thought on this subject. Atonement Theories significantly updates previous histories of the doctrine, providing analysis of some fascinating and highly significant recent developments. It also intriguingly highlights at various points where aspects of this central message of Christianity might find a connection within contemporary culture. This book will empower the reader to quickly gain a working knowledge of current debates and the history behind them.

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Why do groups such as Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Unitarians have such difficulty with the doctrine of the Trinity? Do they really understand the doctrine they oppose? From the mainstream Christian perspective, perhaps a lack of understanding about the way these other groups view the Scriptures may have hampered a clear presentation of the orthodox doctrine. The Trinity Hurdle is a scriptural and historical defense of the doctrine of the Triune God and substitutionary atonement for Christadelphians, other non-Trinitarians, and those engaging with them, from an author who is familiar with both sides of the doctrinal divide.

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In The Self-Donation of God, Jack Kilcrease argues that the speech-act of promise is always an act of self-donation. A person who unilaterally promises to another is bound to take a particular series of actions to fulfill that promise. Being that creation is grounded in God's promising speech, the divine-human relationship is fundamentally one of divine self-donation and human receptivity. Sin disrupts this relationship and therefore redemption is constituted by a reassertion of divine promise of salvation in the face of the condemnation of the law (Gen 3:15). As a new and effective word of grace, the promise of a savior begins the process of redemption within which God speaks forth a new narrative of creation. In this new narrative, God gives himself in an even deeper manner to humanity. By donating himself through a promise, first to the protological humanity and then to Israel, he binds himself to them. At the end of this history of self-binding, God in Christ enters into the condemnation of the law, neutralizes it in the cross, and brings about a new creation through his omnipotent word of promise actualized in the resurrection.

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A strong critique of traditional atonement theology is found in the work of many contemporary feminist theologians. This approach, in large part, is related to the notion of women's experience–a category that is used widely within feminist theology. But what is women's experience and how does it affect feminist theology, particularly views on the atonement? The category of women's experience is pivotal to feminist theology, yet its use may lead to models of atonement that place excessive stress upon the subjective element of Christ's saving work thereby neglecting to address adequately the objective aspects of the cross. This book focuses on the methodological issues regarding the category of women's experience generally, its definition and use in feminist theology, with a more detailed analysis of its use in the context of feminist theologies of atonement. Utilizing the work of a wide variety of feminist theologians in conversation with theologies of experience, this work attempts to understand the role of women's experience as it shapes feminist views on the atonement, noting the strengths and limitations of feminist approaches to soteriology.

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Atonement has been described as the central doctrine of Christianity and yet, surprisingly, the church has never insisted on a particular understanding of how redemption in Christ was achieved. Instead, a miscellany of metaphors has been employed, each picturing «something» of Christ's work. Recent debate within Reformed Evangelicalism has been characterized by claims for hegemony to be granted to penal substitution versus counter-arguments for a kaleidoscopic, multi-model understanding. Notably absent in these discussions, however, are two considerations. One is any common nexus to draw atonement thought together. The other is any positive theological contribution deriving from God's preexisting relationship with Israel (the presumed role of which has rather been to provide a negative contrast of law-versus-grace and works-versus-faith, as the dark background against which the light of Christ may shine more brightly). Recent scholarship, however–particularly the «new perspective on Paul»–has comprehensively dismantled the old stereotypes concerning first-century Judaism. This book asks how differently we might think about the atonement once it is brought into conversation with the new scholarship. It concludes by proposing a «new perspective» on atonement in which Christ is central, Israel and Torah are affirmed, and the traditional metaphors continue to find their place.

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The present volume is the third in a five-volume study of church doctrine. The multivolume set covers the major parts of church doctrine: Canon, God, Creation, Reconciliation, and Redemption. The first volume begins with an introduction to the entire project on why doctrine matters, which stresses the ecumenical, global, and above all biblical horizons of church doctrine as a primary expression of Christian witness. The second volume discusses the doctrine of God. The purpose of this third volume is to reaffirm the traditional church doctrine of Creation, and yet to do so in a way that submits that tradition to the overruling, overpowering authority of Scripture. God the Creator, according to the Bible, owns the entire universe; it does not belong to humankind. We live in service of his covenant of grace; but we do so along with our fellow creatures in a common vulnerability and finitude. The volume addresses the question of how the church doctrine of Creation speaks to the manifold ecological crisis of our time. Church doctrine is not a luxury but a necessity for the living community of faith, by which its witness in word and deed is tested against the one true measure of Christ the risen Lord.

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Christians strongly disagree about the extent of the atonement. Some believe that the atonement only extends to the elect, those whom God chose to save before the foundation of the world. Others believe the atonement is unlimited, that Jesus died for all people whether they ever believe in him or not. Despite the differences in these two traditional understandings they share one thing in common: both believe that Jesus died for a single, intended purpose. But what if God's intentions in the atonement are multiple, not single? The Bible teaches exactly this, that Jesus died both to pay for the sins of all people and to secure the salvation of those God chose to believe in him before time began. This book explains and defends a multi-intentioned view of the extent of the atonement, asserting that this view does the best job of understanding all of what the Bible says about the extent of the atonement, is more theologically comprehensive than the traditional views, and has the best potential for consensus on who exactly Jesus Christ died for when he was crucified for our sins.

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This book offers a fresh perspective on the ongoing evangelical debate concerning whether the Son eternally submits to the Father. Beginning with the pro-Nicene account of will being a property of the single divine nature, Glenn Butner explores how language of eternal submission requires a modification of the classical theology of the divine will. This modification has problematic consequences for Christology, various atonement theories, and the doctrine of God, because as historically developed these doctrines shared the pro-Nicene assumption of a single divine will. This new angle on an old debate challenges the reader to move beyond the inaccurate characterization of views on eternal submission as «Arian» or «feminist» toward a more accurate understanding of the real theological issues at stake.

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In this groundbreaking book, Michael Gorman asks why there is no theory or model of the atonement called the «new-covenant» model, since this understanding of the atonement is likely the earliest in the Christian tradition, going back to Jesus himself. Gorman argues that most models of the atonement over-emphasize the penultimate purposes of Jesus' death and the «mechanics» of the atonement, rather than its ultimate purpose: to create a transformed, Spirit-filled people of God. The New Testament's various atonement metaphors are part of a remarkably coherent picture of Jesus' death as that which brings about the new covenant (and thus the new community) promised by the prophets, which is also the covenant of peace.
Gorman therefore proposes a new model of the atonement that is really not new at all–the new-covenant model. He argues that this is not merely an ancient model in need of rediscovery, but also a more comprehensive, integrated, participatory, communal, and missional model than any of the major models in the tradition. Life in this new covenant, Gorman argues, is a life of communal and individual participation in Jesus' faithful, loving, peacemaking death.
Written for both academics and church leaders, this book will challenge all who read it to re-think and re-articulate the meaning of Christ's death for us.

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The Doctrine of the Eons: God's Immutable Plan is an account of how God will bring about the salvation and reconciliation of all mankind. Each chapter provides a theological account of how this will be accomplished, including dispelling common myths about God and focusing on the meaning of the word «immutable.» This leads to a discussion of the Hebrew and Greek definitions of «eon» and «eternal,» and we discover that neither the Old nor the New Testament uses the word «eternal.» «Eternal» tends to refer to an indefinite amount of time, whereas «eon» is more definite; the latter term is primarily used when the Bible talks about the end-times. Finally, the doctrine of universal salvation is presented, arguing that God will have all men be saved and that he will eventually reconcile all creation.

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Полный вариант заголовка: «The doctrine of life for the New Jerusalem, from the commandements of the Decalogue / translated from the latin of Emanuel Swedenborg origanally published at Amsterdam in the year 1763».

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The present volume is the fifth in a five-volume study of church doctrine. The multivolume set covers the major parts of church doctrine: Canon, God, Creation, Reconciliation, and Redemption. The first volume begins with an introduction to the entire project on why doctrine matters, which stresses the ecumenical, global, and above all biblical horizons of church doctrine as a primary expression of Christian witness. The purpose of this fifth volume is to explicate the full reality of God's redeeming love for the whole creation. In the doctrine of redemption, the church looks forward in hope. Through the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost the church is gathered out of all nations and peoples of the earth, and looks forward to the coming day of final redemption for the whole cosmos. Yet even now, the promise of God's coming is active in the world, rendering the church into a new humanity, establishing a new society, calling every individual to a new life of joy in discipleship. Church doctrine is not a luxury, but a necessity for the living community of faith, by which its witness in word and deed is tested against the one true measure of Christ the risen Lord.

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Полный вариант заголовка: «The doctrine of the New Jerusalem on the subject of faith / translated from Latin of Emanuel Swedenborg ; published originally at Amsterdam, in the year 1763».

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Theologians are constantly accused of only speaking in theories, positing arguments to be considered by the mind with little bearing on the practicalities of life. This view is both blinkered and generally unjust, but it is also the case that some fit that description without perhaps realizing it. Chris Woodall argues that doctrine is not only a compelling tool but also a critical one, without which we would struggle to understand God's purpose or our place in it.
The atonement is not a subject that lends itself easily to being considered from a merely philosophical perspective. After all, how could you possibly present the atonement as being necessary, real, and beneficial without that presentation impinging on its practical application? In this book, Woodall seeks to treat the subject matter as a valid hermeneutic by which our understanding of the whole of Scripture may be greatly enhanced. Thus, the concept of the atonement must be seen as both a continuous thread in the Bible and a key to unlocking some of its secrets.

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Teaching on the sanctification of Christians using the difficult word perfection has been part of Christian spirituality through the centuries. The Fathers spoke of it and Augustine particularly contributed his penetrating analysis of human motivation in terms of love. Medieval theologians such as Bernard and Thomas Aquinas developed the tradition and wrote of levels or «degrees» of «perfection» in love. However, the doctrine has not fared so well among Protestants. John Wesley was the one major Protestant leader who tried to blend this ancient tradition of Christian «perfection» with the Reformation proclamation of justification by grace through faith.
This book seeks to develop Wesley's synthesis of patristic and Reformation theology in order to consider how Christian «perfection» can be expressed in a more nuanced way in today's culture. Noble examines what basis may be found for Wesley's understanding of sanctification in the central doctrines of the church, particularly the atonement, the doctrine of Christ, and the most comprehensive of all Christian doctrines, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. What he sets out is a fully trinitarian theology of holiness.

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The doctrine of the trinity is probably the most complex and mysterious topic in Christian theology, yet it impacts our understanding of many other doctrines. Pastor/Theologian Robert D. Cornwall brings his knowledge of church history to the task of examining this doctrine, looking at how it developed and what justifies its presence in Christian theology. He uses the history of his own Disciples of Christ tradition as one of the expressions of the Stone-Campbell movement, which avoids creeds very effectively in examining how we distinguish between the statements and events of scripture and our theological reflections on them. Can a doctrine not mentioned in scripture be of value? Are creeds necessary or even useful? Cornwall threads a careful course between the value of the creeds, and within them the doctrine of the trinity, in defining our ecumenical relationships and task on the one and, and on the other the danger of having creeds as a test of fellowship and faith. While rooted in his own denomination's traditions, this is very valuable to other denominations and movements as we examine what defines us while at the same time seeking freedom in non-essentials. This book is especially strong in examining the history of the development of this doctrine and connecting this to our ongoing reflection on scripture and what our tradition and experience provides. This short volume is valuable to all those who seek to understand the trinity not just as an element in a doctrinal system, but as it aids us in thinking about elements of our faith.

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