Atonement Recap
What we've covered so far
Hey friends,
I wanted to take a moment to recap the atonement work I’ve been doing on Substack recently. I’ve been producing a lot of atonement-related content, and I know it can be easy to get a bit lost in it all (I know because Tory tells me often). So, here’s a brief recap of what I’ve done so far.
Articles
I’ve written a series of articles that explore the foundations and history of atonement theories. If you’re intrigued by this conversation but don’t know where to start, I’ve written an initial post entitled Understanding the Atonement, Pt. 1, where I discuss a few key foundational ideas we need to keep in mind whenever we begin this conversation—including what the word atonement means, what kinds of problems atonement is attempting to address, and what the most essential atonement truth might be.
In the next three posts, I dove into some of the more well-known atonement theories throughout history.
I started by exploring recapitulation theory—arguably our oldest known atonement theory, and one that has genuinely captivated my imagination (I can’t help but talk about it; every time I’m on a podcast, I somehow turn it into a recapitulation theory pod—sorry not sorry). This theory is associated with Saint Irenaeus of Lyons—an absolute boss—and it frames atonement around participation in the life, way, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In Jesus, the human story is restarted or renewed so that we can participate in it as we were always intended to.
In the second post, I looked at Ransom and Christus Victor theories of atonement. I took these two together because Christus Victor most likely emerged out of Ransom and shares a key thematic similarity. Chiefly, they both understand atonement as the way in which God “frees” humanity from an evil power. Ransom, as the name implies, suggests that Christ on the cross is God’s ransom payment to the devil on our behalf. But—and this is where the two theories diverge—Christus Victor argues that the cross is not a payment to evil, but the counterintuitive defeat of evil.
Finally, in my most recent post, I explored Satisfaction and Penal Substitutionary (PSA) theories of atonement. These theories (especially PSA) are the most well-known today, so I spent a bit of extra time offering a response. I genuinely believe both can be beautiful articulations of the good and loving atonement story. At the same time, I’ve often seen them absolutized and weaponized in painful and deeply limiting ways.
Podcasts
As I’ve been releasing written content, I’ve also been producing episodes of the Prodigal Pastor podcast that explore atonement.
In my first atonement episode, I talked with Dr. Mark Baker, who provided a helpful introduction and foundation for the conversation. Mark has written a number of great resources on atonement that I highly recommend—you can find them here.
In our second episode, I chatted with Dr. Michael Gorman. Gorman has been hugely influential on my own theology, and I can’t express how grateful I am for him. In this episode, we explored his book The Death of the Messiah, the Birth of the New Covenant, a work that helps place atonement within the broader story of the Bible.
Third, I interviewed Dr. Greg Boyd. I know I say this a lot, but Greg Boyd has been such a gift to me as a writer, theologian, and pastor. I’ve been reading Boyd for years, Missio is part of a network of churches with him, and I serve on a theology writing and research team alongside him. Despite all my attempts to secretly manufacture proximity, we’d never actually had a one-on-one conversation. In this episode, I finally get to do that—but more importantly, we talk about how the cross shapes the way we read the Bible, see God’s work, and even think about atonement (huh? It’ll make sense when you listen, I promise).
Fourth, and finally (for now), I interviewed Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw. Dr. Bashaw is a new friend, but I’ve been reading her work for a while. My first encounter with her was through her book Scapegoats, where she takes a theory of atonement proposed by one of my favorite philosophers, René Girard, and applies it to the broader story of Jesus. She recently released a new book entitled Serving Up Scripture, which is an excellent guide to studying the Bible. In this conversation, we talk about both books. We explore how to read the Bible, she offers a helpful and succinct summary of Girard’s work, and she brings the two together to help us make sense of the cross in Scripture.
I hope you’ve found this series of essays and podcasts helpful. It’s been a fun project, and I’m planning to continue it. I’m not entirely sure where all of this will lead. People keep asking if I’m working on a book about atonement (okay, like two people), and honestly—not really. I’d be open to it someday, but right now I just want to make this theology as accessible as possible.
If you’ve found this helpful, let me know in the comments. And if there are questions you’d like me to explore or areas you feel are still underdeveloped, I’d love to hear that too.
Thanks all!
Love this series, Jonny! Thanks for putting it together. Also, can confirm that all pod conversations with you become recapitulation conversations. No apology necessary!