atonement
Essential books: Fall books
Our fall books issue includes annotated lists of essential titles on Revelation, evangelism and theodicy.
In satisfaction alone
Boy, "In Christ Alone" just will not stay out of the churchy news. A few weeks ago it was standing in for all hymnody ever in the face of the chorus-singing horde; now it's standing in for confessional evangelicals' valiant defense against the liberal horde. Coming soon: "In Christ Alone" as a symbol of resistance to common-cup communion, or missional-everything fervor, or preaching from your iPad.
But about that liberal horde.
Why the cross? God’s at-one-ment with humanity
Some questions won't go away. The creed says Jesus was crucified "for us," but what do those two little words mean?
Essential books
Our fall books issue includes annotated lists of top titles on the book of Job, atonement and children's ministry.
How does Jesus save?
Looking back to history to find yet another approach to atonement will not solve the problem, but a reconsideration of the physical or mystical theory of how Christ saves us might contribute to more fruitful and civil conversation.
Holy irony: Matthew 26:14–27:66
At one end of Matthew, Jesus goes free. At the other, cruel, ritualized slaughter befalls him.
Violence undone: James Alison on Jesus as forgiving victim
Imagine someone who, because he is not driven by fear of death, is able to undergo an absolutely typical lynching at human hands and to do so deliberately—showing that death, rather than being definitive and powerful, is no more than a frightening mirage. Christ calls the bluff of the lynching, enabling humans to be less driven by fear and a desire for revenge.