One for the Other
Engaging with Nonviolent Atonement Theology
- Theology
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
For two thousand years, the cross of Christ has been the central point of Christian theologies of salvation. However, in recent years, a variety of theologians, such as Rosemary Radford Ruether, Rita Nakashima Brock, J. Denny Weaver, and Rene Girard, united in their disdain for violence, have abandoned any divine sanction or salvific significance for the cross of Christ. Instead, they frame atonement not in terms of Christ's death but his life, formulating atonement theologies that address the need for an ethical concern for the oppressed and powerless 'Other.' This volume is dedicated to offering a fair account of their revisions, identifying the ethical undertones that lead nonviolent theologians and thinkers to reform atonement theology, examining their claims in light of those ethical foundations, and exploring P. T. Forsyth as a viable alternative for contemporary theology.
Endorsements (5)
“Horizontal relationships may not obscure or replace vertical relationships. This salutary word of caution permeates Andrew Campbell’s refutation of nonviolent atonement theologies, which he argues are centered upon the human Other—women (for feminism), outsiders (for René Girard), or the powerless (for Denny Weaver). Drawing on P. T. Forsyth’s presentation of the cross as satisfying God’s holiness, One for the Other powerfully advances an objective view of atonement without losing sight of its moral implications. A model of clarity, fair-mindedness, and nuance, this book offers a significant contribution to the ongoing atonement debates.”
“Postmodern theologies, with their sensitivity to violence, present a crucial challenge to Anselmian accounts of the atonement. Andrew Campbell shows how P. T. Forsyth offers a way forward which addresses the ethical concerns of those theologies without abandoning the agency of the triune God and the salvific significance of the cross. A vital intervention on the meaning and implications of the cross of Christ.”
“The New Testament writers who deal with Christ’s death are much more reticent about describing the violence of it than future theologians, preachers, and filmmakers have been. The same could be said of the icon writers of the Orthodox tradition. More recently some theologians have sieved this area of reticence to disconnect the violence from the efficacy of the atonement. One for the Other is a persuasive study in providing an ethical synthesis of these approaches.”
“I am grateful for Andrew Campbell’s argumentatively astute yet nonviolent engagement with nonviolent atonement theologians. He honors their ‘concern for the oppressed Other’ even as he preserves, with a little help from P. T. Forsyth, the core concern of traditional atonement theology, namely, the saving substitutionary work of Christ on the cross. This is a book that goes a significant way to reconciling those who argue about reconciliation in Christ.”
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