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“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Reflections on the Atonement” is now...
Some of you have asked me how to get a copy of my little book on the atonement, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Reflections on the Atonement. The book was a Confessing Christ book, and published...
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Who’s afraid of the big bad cross? The bloodless theology of the mainline...
If you were to worship in an American conservative evangelical church that hasn’t yet sold its soul to the prosperity Gospel, there is a good chance you may soon hear a sermon about the cross. Not so...
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The Work of Christ in the Thought of P.T. Forsyth: Kenosis and Plerosis...
To talk of “the work of Christ” in the theology of P.T.Forsyth is not to refer to merely a section of his systematic theology, but to point to the heart of his theology. Forsyth’s entire theological...
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More Palm/Passion Sunday Ruminations: Have we preachers asked people to...
This Sunday may be the best opportunity of the Church year for a preacher to get at the fundamental questions of Jesus’s identity and its correlate Christian identity. Many Churches read the entire...
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Can Judas be saved? Ruminations on his role in the drama of Redemption.
Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve Apostles, and the one who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, has become a byword in English for a betrayer. None of us is a stranger to betrayal. It is a particularly...
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Willis Elliott on Atonement vs. Reconciliation
My friend and Confessing Christ co-conspirator Willis Elliot, who is a polymath, Biblical language scholar, churchman, provocateur, nonagenarian, and a long-time interlocutor, is the guest poster...
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Atonement: P.T. Forsyth on the Finished Work of Christ
Among all the historic disagreements and discussions on the meaning of Jesus Christ’s atoning death, a pivotal issue is whether the “work of Christ” is a finished work, or whether some level of human...
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Was Christ’s atoning death an expiation or a propitiation? Ruminations on the...
One of the perennial questions about the meaning of Christ’s atoning death is “was it an expiation or a propitiation?” In other words, was the atonement performed towards us, or towards God? Both...
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The Cross and Violence: A Rumination
Is the cross of Jesus Christ implicated in the violence of our world? More specifically, does the church’s theology of the cross, expressed in its various views of atonement, contribute to fostering...
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Aurora and the violence that breaks God’s heart
I briefly considered ruminating on the Aurora shootings here and then quickly backed away from what is already a media show of vast proportion. After all, what is there to say? But then I came upon a...
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“I Crucified Thee!” A Sermon for Palm/Passion Sunday
(As we prepare for Holy Week I offer this sermon of mine from 2004, my last year (as it turned out) as pastor at First Church in Pittsfield. Mel Gibson’s controversial film Passion of the Christ had...
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Problems Facing the Idea of Substitutionary Atonement
(On St Anselm of Canterbury’s feast day I thought I would honor him by addressing some of the issues that have troubled people about various “theories” of substitutionary atonement. Anselm himself is...
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Some Lenten Reflections on Forgiveness
The idea of forgiveness is so ingrained in our cultural and religious traditions that it is easy for us to overlook what an extraordinary idea it is. Although we tend to separate out “forgiving” and...
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“The Cross and Forgiveness”
As we enter Holy Week and look ahead to Easter I would like to reflect on some of the threads of our Lenten study these past few weeks in the light of the cross and resurrection. You will recall that...
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Can the Church Survive the Decline in Worship?
My Massachusetts colleague Kazimierz Bem, Pastor and Teacher of the First Church in Marlboro, doesn’t think so. He had a wise and thoughtful post yesterday on faith street.com called Christianity...
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“The Message of the Cross” A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:23-25
A minister friend and mentor of mine, Herb Davis, once told me that every preacher has only one sermon in him, or her. According to Herb, every Sunday the preacher serves up that one sermon in a...
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“The Cross and the Church: The Soteriology and Ecclesiology of P. T. Forsyth”
(Note: This article first appeared in the Andover Newton Review in 1992 (Vol 3, No. 1). It is the fruit of essays I wrote for my tutor the Revd. Donald Norwood during my 1989 sabbatical at Mansfield...
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“The God of the Far Off” Toward the Ministry of Inclusion
What an extraordinary week this has been for our country! The great Swiss theologian Karl Barth liked to admonish the church that it must read both the Bible and the newspaper, because we Christians...
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My Book on the Atonement
The Christian doctrine of Atonement has long been a theological preoccupation of mine, which may seem strange since I didn’t come out of an Evangelical background, where this is a central concern. I...
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“On Our Side!” A Devotional on the Atonement
“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”...
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