A Short History of the Doctrine of the Atonement

Wipf & Stock Publishers, July 2001. Paper Back. New. Grenstead comes to his task with the requisite humility necessary for such an endeavor, as well as the clear understanding that ''Those who would frame for themselves a theory of the Atonement have indeed the guidance of many doctors of the Church, but have no one clear ruling attested by Experience as true up to the limits of human truth.'' With that in mind, and firmly rooted in the belief that any theory of the Atonement must be revealed in life, he sets a steady hand to giving us a readable and consecutive rendering. Beginning with the Bible as basis for all doctrinal reconstruction, he proceeds through Christendom by touching on the ransom theories of the Patristic Age, the satisfaction theories of Anselm and the Scholastics, the development of the penal theory by the Reformers and the Modern return to the moral theory with its manward focus, rooted in the ''Person'' of God. Grensted surmises that the invisible chain linking these theological inconsistencies together is the mystical union of Christ with the believer -- attested to in Johannine literature and residing in the incarnate love of the cross. (One note: you might find this reprint a bit on the messy side. The original used for this reprint edition had occasional underlining throughout, and so do the copies made from it.)