Description: Do atonement theologies that focus on Jesus' death
underwrite human violence? If so, we do well to rethink beliefs
that this death is necessary to bring salvation. Focusing on the
Bible's salvation story, Instead of Atonement argues for a logic of
mercy to replace Christianity's traditional logic of retribution.
The book traces the Bible's main salvation story through God's
liberating acts, the testimony of the prophets, and Jesus's life
and teaching. It then takes a closer look at Jesus's death and
argues that his death gains its meaning when it exposes violence in
the cultural, religious, and political Powers. God's raising of
Jesus completes the story and vindicates Jesus's life and teaching.
The book also examines the understandings of salvation in Romans
and Revelation that reinforce the message that salvation is a gift
of God and that Jesus's "work" has to do with his faithful life,
his resistance to the Powers, and God's vindication of him through
resurrection. The book concludes that the "Bible's salvation story"
provides a different way, instead of atonement, to understand
salvation. In turn, this biblical understanding gives us today
theological resources for a mercy-oriented approach to responding
to wrongdoing, one that follows God's own model. Endorsements:
"Against the assumption that Torah and the Prophets display a God
of retribution, Grimsrud shows both picture God as merciful. Rather
than dying because God demanded retribution for sin, Jesus died
because the powers that opposed him--law, temple, empire--demanded
retribution for breaking their rules. Many such challenges to the
presumed biblical view of retribution make Instead of Atonement a
welcome addition to recent arguments rejecting the prevailing
acceptance of divine violence." --J. Denny Weaver, author of The
Nonviolent Atonement "In the last quarter century, the theology and
ethics of retributive justice have come under long-overdue critical
scrutiny. Practical experiments in peacemaking and restorative
justice are challenging conventional wisdom, animating social
imagination, and inspiring radical revisions of traditional
atonement soteriology. Ted Grimsrud--one of our most reliable
first-world theologians--provides the most concise, readable, and
compelling summary to date of the biblical case for the 'turn to
restorative justice.' This book will help empower a revolutionary
reclamation of a healing Christian faith for our violent times."
--Ched Myers, author of Binding the Strong Man About the
Contributor(s): Ted Grimsrud is Professor of Theology and Peace
Studies at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Among his books are Compassionate Eschatology: The Future as Friend
(2011), God's Healing Strategy: An Introduction to the Main Themes
of the Bible (2011), Theology as if Jesus Matters (2009), and
Embodying the Way of Jesus: Anabaptist Convictions for the
Twenty-First Century (2007).
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