The Atonement Debat e within Contemporary Evangelic alis m Mick Taylor September 2006
The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse – a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement “God is love”. If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil. (The Lost Message of Jesus by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann p182-183) It was this quote from a brief section, in the last chapter of a short book that turned academic debate into public controversy. Over the last 20 years there had been developing within British and North American evangelical academia a discussion over what is the correct way to understand the work of Christ on the cross? The chief concern was the status of the doctrine of penal substitution, is it the best model? The only model? Is it scriptural? Is it helpful or harmful? The L ost Messa g e of Jesus by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann and Steve’s subsequent article on the atonement in the Christianity magazine fathered mountains of correspondence, an EA sponsored debate then in July 2005 a 3 day symposium at the London School of Theology. In the latest edition of Ide a (March/April 2006) it reports The Evangelical Alliance’s Board statement clarifying its position on the atonement which makes clear that the revised basis of faith adopted in September 2005 is to be understood as affirming Jesus’ death as offering penal substitutionary atonement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the thinking that has led some who would see themselves as evangelical to doubt the validity of the penal substitution explanation of atonement. A particular focus will be the book by Joel B Green and Mark D Baker, R e c ov er in g the Sca n d a l of the Cr oss though it will not be limited to just that. [In the autumn 2004 the Research Seminar of the London School of Theology used this book as the basis of a terms discussion]. Other books that at least in part reflect this thinking are Tom Smail’s, W in d o ws o n the Cr oss, the St John’s College Symposium lectures in A to n em e nt Tod ay edited by John Goldingay and, A ton em e nt for a ‘S in l e ss ’ Soc iety by Alan Mann. The IVP D ictio n a ry of Jesus a n d Atonement.doc
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