Theologia

 E ach of these theories seem right in some ways and wrong in others. Just like trying to flatten a geography of a glob onto a flat map, our attempts to explain the atonement are bound to introduce distortions. Reality is always more complex than our models can capture. Changing the medium always distorts the message. The best strategy is the same one the early church took with the Gospels. Don't put one over the other. Reflect on each of them if you want to give due respect to the reality that inspired each of them. I've been having my own thoughts about the atonement. I'm beginning to see the crucifixion of Jesus as something more than God intervening at a certain point in history. I'm beginning to see it as the expression of an eternal truth. God's timeless willingness to forgive humanity.  Revelation 13:8 refers to Christ as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." When Jesus died on the cross, it wasn't a stand alone event.  It was the v

What I would like to do here is give some idea of the scriptural foundations for soteriology, and see what that tells us, and what it does not. Then I would like to examine the history of soteriology and see how it has made various attempts to fill in the details. I would like to conclude with my own thoughts. Biblical Foundations Theories of Atonement Final Thoughts  

C hristians have made several attempts to explain how Jesus's death and resurrection could address the problem of sin. These attempts are called "theories of atonement." Different groups tend to favor one over the other, and sometimes that can cause bitter conflict.   But its important to remember that there is a difference between the actual events referred to in the pages of the Bible, and our human attempts to explain their significance.  Models can teach us valuable insights about the world but they can . We are not saved by having the right theory, but by the actual work of Jesus. Just as you can know enough about cars to drive one without having to understand what's going on under the hood. You can have faith in the work Jesus did to reconcile you to God - even if you don't properly understand how it works. As the British statistician G.E. Box said, "All models are wrong, but some are useful." Here is a brief summary of each of these views. Recapit

The written account of what happened to Jesus and the significance it holds for the world is preserved in four documents we call the Gospels. The word "Gospel" is an English translation of the Greek word Euangelion , which means "Good News," a term originally used to announce the reign of a new Caesar. Christians took this word from the Romans and applied it to their message about Jesus. "Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah." — Acts 2:36 It was only later that "Gospel" came to refer to the narrative accounts about Jesus's life which we see in the Bible. Despite being the origin stories of the Faith, the Gospels are among the last documents in our Bible to be written, and yet they have become so central to the Christian faith that they have become synonymous with the Christian message itself. The Heart of the Message What each of the Gospels shares in common is an emphasis on t

 L ook anywhere in the world, and you'll see people engaging in all kinds of religious expression, holding beliefs that describe realities beyond our material world.  Our perennial interest in transcendence appears to be a uniquely human trait. It’s the reason 20th-century Romanian religious  historian Mircea Eliade, referred to human beings as homo religiosus . In the pre-modern world Atheism didn’t exist as we know it. Back then, the term was used as an accusation against those who deviated from religious norms. For instance, the Greek philosopher Celsus accused Christians of being atheists, for refusing to worship the Roman gods.  Over time, with the success of the scientific method, the word "atheist" began to take on new meanings. By the early 18th people began to use the word to describe their belief in scientific materialism—a shift in worldview brought about by the Enlightenment. Today, we live in what Charles Taylor calls a secular age. In A Secular Age , Taylor