A man named Abimelech (lit. "my father is king") sweet-talks his way into the hearts and minds of an ancient Israelite territory. Ambitious and ruthless, he will eventually turn against the very people he was meant to rule. A cautionary tale of choosing poor leadership.

Show Notes:

Artwork: "A Woman Breaks the Skull of Abimelech." James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902). The Jewish Museum.

Music:

Borealis. Scott Buckley. www.scottbuckley.com.au Intervention. Scott Buckley. Computations in a Snowstorm. Scott Buckley. Insanity Control. AMRPHIS.

We conclude our series on the atonement of Christ by recapping the question with which we began: why does the public execution of Jesus have anything to do with our salvation?

Show Notes:

1. Elizabeth Johnson. Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2018.

2. Viktor Frankl. Man's Search for Meaning. 5th edition. Trans. Ilse Lasch. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006.

3. Thomas F. Torrance. Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ. Edited by Robert Walker. Paternoster: Milton Keynes, 2009.

4. Karl Rahner. Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity. Translated by William Dych. New York: Seabury Press, 1978.

5. Kevin Vanhoozer. "The Atonement in Postmodernity." The Glory of the Atonement: Biblical, Historical, & Practical Perspectives. Edited by Charles Hill and Frank James. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004. 367-404.

6. Scot McKnight. A Community Called Atonement. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007.

7. Joel Green. "The Kaleidoscopic View." The Nature of Atonement. Four Views series. Edited by James Beilby and Paul Eddy. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

Why are infants baptized? Why is a Catholic required to confess to a priest in the confessional? Turns out, the answers to these and many other Catholic-specific questions tie directly into the concept of Grace, and the role that Grace plays in Catholic atonement theology. What must a Catholic do to be saved?

Show Notes:

1. Karl Rahner. Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity. Translated by William Dych. New York: Seabury Press, 1978.

2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Available at http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/

In the 11th and 12th centuries CE, pushback increased against the dominant Ransom narrative of Christ's atoning work. Step into the soap opera that is Abelard's life, and admire Anselm's life as a participant in history, all while we examine their unique contributions to our understanding of our salvation.

Show Notes:

1. Gwenfair Walters, "The Atonement in Medieval Theology." The Glory of the Atonement: Biblical, Historical, & Practical Perspectives. Edited by Charles Hill and Frank James. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004. Pgs. 239-62.

2. Mark Baker and Joel Green. Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts. 2011.

3. Denis Kaiser. "Peter Abelard's Theology of Atonement: A Multifaceted Approach and Reevaluation." Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, vol. 26(1). 2015. pgs. 3-28.

4. Cristina Nehring. "Heloise & Abelard: Love Hurts." New York Times online edition, Feb. 13 2005. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/books/review/heloise-abelard-love-hurts.html

5. Peter Abelard. Historia Calamitatum (Story of my Misfortunes). Trans. Henry Adams Bellows, 1922. Available at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/abelard-histcal.aspx

Cover artwork: Jean Vignaud (1775-1826). Abelard and Heloise Surprised by the Abbot Fulbert. 1819, oil on canvas.

To celebrate the Christmas season and the culmination of Epiphany, this episode presents a brief digression from our Atonement series to discuss that all-important date of December 25th. It's become popular to view this date with cynicism and a deconstructionist perspective, as we learn more about the pagan and non-Christan inspiration and roots of our Christmas celebrations. Is this cynicism warranted? Or is there room to appreciate the traditions and truths which undergird the season while still internalizing the meaning of the holiday?

Show Notes:

1. Steven Hijmans. "Sol Invictus, the Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas." Mouseion, Series III, vol. 3, 2003. Pgs. 377-98.

2. C.P.E. Nothaft. "The Origins of the Christmas Date: Some Recent Trends in Historical Research." Church History 81(4), 2012. Pgs. 903-11.

3. Kurt Simmons. "The Origins of Christmas and the Date of Christ's Birth." JETS 58(2), 2015. Pgs. 299-324.

4. Mike Duncan. "A History of Rome Christmas." The History of Rome Podcast, Episode 18. 2010.

The early and medieval Church held to a model of atonement called "Ransom" or "Christus Victor". Hand over the briefcase, Jesus...but slowly, keep those hands where we can see 'em. In this episode, we outline the Ransom model of atonement using Satan's tempations of Jesus in the Judean wilderness as a test case.

Show Notes:

1. "Atonement." In The Jewish Annotated New Testament. 2nd edition. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. 2017.

2. Gregory Boyd, Crucifixion of the Warrior God. 2017.

3. Mark Baker and Joel Green. Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts. 2011.

4. Gregory Boyd, "Christus Victor". In The Nature of Atonement: Four Views Series. James Beilby and Paul Eddy, eds. 2006.

The New Testament writers are very concerned with presenting Christ as a "living sacrifice" - but since most of us aren't in the habit of sacrificing animals anymore (or we've sworn it off at the strong urging of our sponsor), this episode presents an overview of the Ancient Near Eastern sacrificial systems.

Show Notes:

1. "Atonement." In The Jewish Annotated New Testament. 2nd edition. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. 2017.

2. John Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament. 2nd edition. 2018.

3. Naphtali Meshel, "Sacrifice and the Temple." In The Jewish Annotated New Testament. 2nd edition. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. 2017.

4. Pete Enns. "The (Not So) Radical Idea of Jesus's Death Atoning for the Sins of Others." Blog post. 2019.

5. Mark Boda. A Severe Mercy: Sin and its Remedy in the Old Testament. 2009.

Perhaps the most common Evangelical presentation of our need for Christ and his sacrifice comes from a theological model called "The Romans Road" (also referred to as "The Four Spiritual Laws"). Is God's wrath something which must be appeased and satiated, and is Jesus thus our "escape valve" from the Father? Or is the Romans Road a model which should be critiqued and reconciled by thoughtful Christians?

Show Notes:

1. Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (sermon)

2. The Bible Project Podcast, Interview with Scot McKnight, June 20, 2019

3. Mark Baker and Joel Green, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts

4. Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement

5. Andrew Perriman, "What's Wrong with the 'Romans Road' to Salvation?"

Most listeners will be familiar with the crucifixion of Jesus. Was this type of execution rare, an especially sadistic and cruel punishment reserved for only the few? Or was crucifixion a common feature of life in the Roman Empire before and after Jesus' earthly life? This episode makes a cursory examination of the history of crucifixion and what this might mean for our understanding of the Atonement of Christ.

Show Notes:

1. Aron Wall. "Darkness at Noon"

2. Erika Belibtreu. "Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death." Biblical Archaeology Society 17(1), 1991.

3. Herodotus. Histories.

4. Martin Hengel. "Crucifixion: in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross."

5. Gunnar Samuelsson. Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion.

6. Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews.

When Jesus was crucified, did his disciples understand the significance of his death? Was it even reasonable to expect them to? Should Christ's atoning death be obvious to us today, or do we benefit from assistance by Church tradition, academia, and contemplatives?