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The Promise of Peace: A Unified Theory of Atonement by Alan Spence, Published by T & T Clark, 2006, pp126, ISBN O567031179 (hb); 0567031187 (pb) £22.99
Any serious work of theology coming from a URC minister is a note-worthy occurrence. Colleagues who set theological reflection at the heart of their ministries will therefore want to read Alan Spence’s The Promise of Peace. It deals with a subject of central concern: the Atonement.
Amidst a theological scene which takes for granted the diversity of the biblical models of atonement, he wishes to demonstrate how the major redemptive ideas can be woven together within ‘a master (sic) story’ - ‘one extensive and considered explication of God’s saving action’. The book, in effect, is ‘an unfinished commentary’ on the following narrative: ‘The Father gave his only Son to become as we are so that, in offering up himself on our behalf through the Spirit, he might reconcile us to God’. This is a mediatorial view of the atonement in which Christ’s self-offering functions as ‘the material cause’ of our atonement, God supplying ‘the source of atoning action , , , which brings about his favour and forgiveness’.
The human predicament, in Spence’s opinion, is rooted in a ‘disordered world of relationships’ which offends a just and holy God. However, Christ pleads our cause in the divine confessional. Jesus’ propitiatory action on our behalf thus leads to a ‘quiet and often hidden word of gracious promise’. We are conformed to God’s image as that is demonstrated in Jesus’ humanity; we share Christ’s riches, while he takes upon himself our wretchedness; we are granted peace with God as our lives are transformed through an act of gracious divine forgiveness. Only those who respond in faith to what Jesus has done for us will be heirs of the promise. And unless the church presents this gospel, Spence claims, ‘her own life will surely wither away’.
Some will argue that this courageous attempt to uncover a harmony within the New Testament writings on atonement does scant credit to the contextual nature of biblical theology. Meanwhile, a fascinating argument largely remains within the compass of traditional atonement theology, thus providing a kind of refresher course on some mainstream thinking without fully meeting the objections of those who argue that classic atonement thought rests on a mistaken view of God’s nature.
David Peel |
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