It’s not about “you”… What if the moral lessons that we have extracted from the parables are not the whole story? We are returning together, to the source (the parables in light of the way of Christ) in the spirit of communal listening as we invite the stories to shape us.
We invite you to join us on Sundays this summer. To help coordinate this busy time, here’s our Sunday summer snapshot that you can use to see what we have planned for each Sunday in July and August.
Atonement remains to be one of the most mysterious aspects of Christian theology. Theologians through the centuries have used a rich tapestry of metaphors and other language in their journey, and in this series we walk humbly alongside them. With open hands, we approach this topic with humility.
In this series we explored how history, and evolving cultural thought has informed our thinking, our theology, and biblical interpretation. We can see connections between the historical/cultural context of a theory being developed. In this we can see humanity journeying together with God to struggle through these great questions. But the work doesn’t end with historical understanding. Hard questions must be asked about what the atonement means to us today, how it works, and how it fits meaningfully into our lives.
So, as we explored Christus Victor, Ransom, Satisfaction, Scapegoat, Substitutionary, and Moral theories we were often forced to recognize things that could not be reconciled with our personal convictions. In contrast, we could often find aspects of these theories which speak clearly to our understanding of a loving God, and help move us more clearly in the direction of Christlike love. Our hope is that as a community we can wrestle through these occasionally contradictory concepts, to find ourselves not just understanding, but living them more clearly.
We thank you for journeying with us through this series. Below is a list of resources suggested by the teaching team if you wish to dive deeper into this concept.
You have Permission Podcast with Bonnie Kristian, talking through 5 of the most popular and historic atonement theories: Christus Victor, Satisfaction Theory, Moral Exemplar, Penal Substitution, and Scapegoat Theory.
20 Minute Takes Podcast with Brian Zahnd, talking about the role of the cross as well as new ways of looking at the cross as a kaleidoscope, in order to inform how we respond to aspects of Christian life and to justice issues in our society.
