The Wondrous Cross: Atonement and Penal Substitution in the Bible and History

by Stephen R. Holmes

Publisher:

Paternoster

, 2007

Overview

In this book, Stephen Holmes offers an accessible and authoritative account of the way the saving work of Jesus is presented in the Bible, and has been understood throughout Christian history. In particular, the book offers background to the current debates about penal substitutionary atonement by looking at that idea in biblical and historical perspective.

Holmes argues that we can—and should—continue to talk of the cross in penal substitutionary terms, if we understand this as one of many complementary descriptions of the salvation we find in Christ.

Contents

Top Highlights

“God has so ordered the world that the inevitable consequence of sin is violence, suffering and death; and rather than let us suffer these things, God takes them on himself. Penal substitution says nothing more than this.” (Page 107)

“What I will be arguing in this book is that this ‘many metaphors’ picture of how to talk about the cross is the only way to understand penal substitution.” (Page 8)

“Paul uses three different pictures of the atonement just in these few words: justified is a legal term, talking about the doing away of guilt; redemption is a term borrowed from the slave-market, and speaks of the setting free of someone sold into a lifetime of bondage; and sacrifice is a term that recalls the entire Old Testament tradition of the offering of blood on the altar. This mixing of metaphors is common within the New Testament and so, I suggest, should be normal within our theology.” (Page 7)

“Reformer John Calvin was the first to give a full-blown penal substitutionary account of the atonement” (Page 4)

“The general idea was that any account of the cross that accepted that God wanted or needed someone to suffer and die does at least three things: (i) it makes violence acceptable (since God did/does it himself!); (ii) it disempowers victims (who are encouraged to suffer patiently as Jesus suffered patiently); and (iii), when linked to Father-Son language, it makes it look as if the core of the gospel story is an act of child abuse leading to infanticide.” (Page 107)

Praise for the Print Edition

This is a splendid book.

—Church of England Newspaper

Product Details

• Title: The Wondrous Cross: Atonement and Penal Substitution in the Bible and History
• Author: Stephen R. Holmes
• Publisher: Paternoster
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 144

About Stephen R. Holmes

Stephen R. Holmes is senior lecturer in theology, director of teaching, and deputy head of school at the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. He has written extensively on historical theology, treating patristic, Reformation, early modern, and contemporary theology.