Cross and Covenant: Interpreting the Atonement for Twenty-First Century Mission

by Larry Shelton

Publisher:

Paternoster

, 2006

Overview

The cross lies at the heart of Christian faith, yet in a fast-changing cultural context many Christians are struggling to make sense of the atonement and how best to communicate its meaning.

Larry Shelton grasps this bull by the horns and sets forth what he considers to be both a solidly biblical and missionally relevant account of Christ's atoning work. At the core of Shelton's thesis is the claim that covenant relationship has to form the center of our theological reflections on the cross. Moving through both Old and New Testaments, Shelton argues that all of the diverse metaphors for atonement can be held together by the organizing notion of covenant relationship.

Then, tracing the history of theologies of the cross from the second century through to the contemporary world, he sets forth a Trinitarian, relational, and contemporary model of the atonement that parts company with penal substitutionary accounts.

Praise for the Print Edition

This is important work, and we are indebted to Shelton for his theological clarity, his scholarly breadth, his sensitivity to the contemporary debate on the atonement, and his mission-mindedness.

—Joel B. Green, Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Asbury Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Cross and Covenant: Interpreting the Atonement for Twenty-First Century Mission
• Author: R. Larry Shelton
• Publisher: Paternoster
• Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 320

About Larry Shelton

I enjoy spending time with my family-my wife Evangeline, daughters Alison and Anna, sons-in-law Dima and Martin, and grandchildren Kolya, Sasha, and Kaia. They are the light of my life. I also enjoy spending time in God’s creation-fishing, hiking, and camping with friends and family. I also enjoy good movies (like Casablanca, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Zhivago(1965), Beowulf and Mr. Magorium’s Magic Emporium) and novels (like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and The Shack by Paul Young). My goals as a seminary professor are to challenge men and women to be adequately equipped to minister effectively and live as Christians in a global society. I seek to challenge them to understand the culture in which they minister, and to critique methods, practices, and theological concepts for both cultural relevancy and biblical foundation. My concerns for the issues of social justice and globalization focus in particular on Native American theology and the morality of colonization and its impact on indigenous peoples. Humanitarian issues, such as poverty and world hunger are also of primary concern to me.