A Community Called Atonement by Scot McKnight: A Review

So for those who aren’t in my “white suburban men who like to sit around and talk about theology circle”, you may not be familiar with a rather excellent blogger and every-man theologian, Scot McKnight. He is currently the #1 Blogger of said circle, taking the title away from the former champ, The Tall Skinny Kiwi. You don’t get the title of being the most read “emerging church” person without being a well respected bloke with a moderate, generous voice. So when Emergent launched their new line of applicable theology books, Scot McKnight got the chance to articulate the church emerging’s diversity of thought on the topic of the atonement.

The topic of the atonement has become somewhat of a flash point over the last few years among conservative evangelical leaders who critique (unfairly) “emergent-types” of being heretics because some are not as passionate about the penal substitutionary atonement being the only metaphor used when thinking about the life (meaning of) and death (purpose of) Christ. Much of this critique coming from the conservative camp centers on Steve Chalke’s seminal book The Lost Message of Jesus, in which he argues that the penal substitution is a poor metaphor to use solely and exclusively as a mean of explaining the message of Jesus.

In a nutshell, the penal substitution theory says that the life and death of Jesus was all about, solely, and strictly and related to God’s wrath needing to be appeased. So in that vein “God” punished “Jesus” on behalf of “humanity”. A common metaphor used was that God had a gun pointing at humanity but God made Jesus stand in front of the gun to take the bullet for us. You may recall Nick & I getting testy over Derek Webb dropping this on us during one of our podcasts. But I digress. Back to the review.

This book is the first in a new partnership between Abingdon Press & Emergent Village where Emergent is attempting to articulate the diverse perspectives of theology within the practicing church emerging community. One of the slams is that we care nothing about theology and only want to remake it in a “postmodern” light. So this new line of books focusing on applicable theology is a step in proving that assertion wrong. And the first book in the series is a response to our biggest critique, namely that we care nothing about “sin”, the cross, or the “afterlife”.

Scot McKnight was given the challenge to answer this critique as well as find a common voice for one of the most diverse ecclesial communities on one of the most debatable topics of theology - the atonement. And while I don’t always agree with McKnight’s theological conclusions (particularly in regards to the comprehensiveness of sin), I think this is one of the most generous articulations of atonement theory that I’ve ever read.

As Series Editor, Tony Jones says in the Introduction,

“These books will not only tackle theological issues, they’ll also promote a way of doing theology - one that is conversational, collegial, and winsome. Those of us who are involved in this series hold our own convictions, but we do with enough humility to let contrary opinions shape us, too.”

McKnight’s contribution to atonement theory in just 156 pages is plenty. His main premise is that for to long we have held one particular theory tightly to the exclusive ignoring of others. He uses the analogy of a golf bag and golfing. He retells a question that he was once asked about what was his favorite golf club? He said he thought that was a rather odd question to ask since all of his clubs were equally important depending on the conditions and terrain. When he was on the putting green, his favorite club was the putter. When he was on the tee box, his favorite club was the driver. When he was in the green, his favorite club was an iron. McKnight then compares this to atonement theories. Instead of relying on one exclusive club and playing every shot with the same club (trying to putt with a driver) that the seasoned golfer relied on all of the clubs and appreciated each for their part in the whole.

McKnight then carries this metaphorical theme throughout the book describing how we need all of the club/theories - and even the golf bag itself - in order to have a robust and healthy theological perspective of the atonement.

As an applicable theologian, McKnight does not just begin and end the book by describing the different theories of the atonement, but rather begins at the beginning of our story (creation/Genesis) and ends at the transitioning chapter (new creation/Revelation) of our story. In that vein, I think the most important chapter might be his thoughts on Eikons (which I’m sure the Orthodox tradition would deeply value) in which he explains the nature of humanity’s intent, their cracked state, and how the relationality of Jesus (horizontally and vertically) heals the problem for us (horizontally and vertically) . . . (he does a great job of explaining the difference in beginning with wrath and beginning with relationality that I think deserves much more thought in theological circles).

Not only does he root the conversation of atonement in the original creation story but directs the trajectory of the atonement into the here and now. Explaining how the atonement is not just a future oriented “act of God” of cleaning sinners for future entry into heaven, but rather an act that crashes into the present inviting the community of God to participate in the healing, restoration, and justice of the world.

All in all, McKnight does an excellent job with a difficult topic. Balancing the tradition/history of the church with the present/contextual. Balancing the reformed perspective with the new Paul perspectives. My only complaint is that the book was a bit choppy. With each chapter being only 4 or 5 pages. I only wished that each thought would have been given more space and breathing room to develop. But at that point, it would have probably become too weighty and unbearable to manage, losing it’s applicable theology status and becoming a theology for the elite.

If you’ve made it through this whole thing, I’m also giving this book away for free since it was sent to me for review for free. Just leave me a comment if you want it. The only thing is . . . when you’re done reading it, you have to pass it along to someone else.

[tags]Emergent, Emergent+Village, Emergent+Books, Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight, Scot McKnight + Books, Penal Substitution[/tags]