Why Did Jesus Die and What Does That Have to Do with Me? A Biblical and Sacramental Understanding of Atonement
Ebook
This book looks at atonement biblically, theologically, historically, and sacramentally. Biblically it is tied to Scripture's narrative of humanity's failure to fulfill God's intention and God's subsequent covenant with Abraham fulfilled in Jesus. Theologically, in Jesus the eternal Logos became incarnate to fulfill God's intention to deal with sin and begin again with a new creation. Jesus' death was not a payment for anything to anyone! It was the Triune God's non-violent way of absorbing, defeating, and overcoming sin and death for the world. Two chapters focus on sacrifice: how it functioned in Israel's life with God, how Paul and Hebrews use it, and how it thereafter took on pagan connotations. Historically, three chapters review the development of atonement theories through Gustav Aulen's Christus Victor. After reviewing atonement theologies of the last seventy-five years--especially feminist critiques of them--this retrieves Irenaeus and Athanasius, offering an understanding of atonement influenced by Baillie, Barth, Moltmann, Torrance, Von Balthazar, Tanner, and Weaver. Sacramentally, it describes how atonement is realized through the word, baptism, Eucharist, and prayer. Sacramental "atonement" nurtures those "in Christ" as members of God's new creation through Jesus' continuing high priestly ministry of atonement, until his final return.
“This is a wide-ranging, challenging, and thought-provoking book. Anderson goes beyond the dominant Western categories of how the atonement works. By emphasizing the atonement as the entire mystery of reconciliation of human beings to God through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Anderson calls us to be grateful and joyful participants in the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work of reconciliation in our broken world.”
—Dorsey McConnell, bishop emeritus, Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh
“There is any number of historical or constructive studies of atonement today. Fred Anderson’s study is different because it is from a pastor’s heart, but a book few pastors could have written. It is forged in forty-five years of learned ministry, avoiding nothing, never didactic, always hungering for the big picture. Unlike many strictly academic studies, it grew out of dialogue and is earthed in practical living. I thoroughly commend its clarity, profundity, and wisdom.”
—Iain Torrance, president emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary
“Fred Anderson is a pastor with a gift for making theological scholarship accessible to any thoughtful person who wants to understand the cross and its world changing significance. This book blessedly redeems ‘the atonement’ from being a divisive and exhausted debate to a compelling invitation to receive new life in Christ. It provides careful exegesis of Scripture and the theological tradition, which leads to insight on how this new life is nurtured sacramentally through Christ’s ongoing ministry as our high priest.”
—M. Craig Barnes, president, Princeton Theological Seminary
“Fred Anderson offers readers a refreshing, wide-ranging, and highly accessible overview of atonement language from its use in Scripture to its theological development throughout the history of the church. With clarity and persuasion, he unpacks the attempts to explain this complex doctrine while demonstrating that the biblical language of sacrifice is firmly rooted in thanksgiving for divine grace rather than as an attempt to appease an angry god.”
—Paul Galbreath, Union Presbyterian Seminary
“In this inspiring book, Fred Anderson claims that believing in Jesus Christ is about far more than going to heaven when we die. It is also about participating in God’s New Creation today. Drawing on forty-five years of pastoral ministry, Anderson punctuates his theological and historical insights with real-life questions from his congregants. After reading this, you will never look at the cross in the same way again!”
—Thomas K. Tewell, founder, Macedonian Ministry Foundation
“Read this book. You will find a magisterial and hugely instructive survey of virtually all the Christian ideas about atonement throughout the centuries. And you will end in exactly the right place: a passionate and ecumenical invitation to participation in word and sacrament as participation in Christ, in whom all the world, including all human sorrow, has been made to participate in God.”
—Gordon W. Lathrop, United Lutheran Seminary, emeritus
- Title: Why Did Jesus Die and What Does That Have to Do with Me? A Biblical and Sacramental Understanding of Atonement
- Author: Fred Anderson
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666751017, 9781666751000, 1666751006, 9781666750997, 1666750999, 1666751014
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666751017
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-02-12T10:57:45Z
Fred R. Anderson is pastor emeritusof Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he retired after forty-two years of pastoral ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA). A well-known preacher and author of hymn texts and psalm paraphrases, he is a pastoral theologian with special interest in the theology of worship, preaching, and sacraments, and known for his efforts to promote weekly eucharistic celebration in Christian worship.