I am a pretty big fan of Scot McKnight. Needless to say when I heard about 'A Community Called Atonement' it went straight to the top of my list. The book was marketed as a explaining Atonement for the common folk. I must admit that I've read a bit on Atonement already reading The Divine Conspiracy and Exclusion & Embrace, which both engage the topic in larger denser manner. Part of my excitement over McKnight is how influential The Jesus Creed was for me it was simple and profound. I always felt that the theory of Atonement was important, but has always been a bit too academic and the book appeared to be going in a different direction to bring the community into the theory.
The big disappointment was how the book was fairly basic and while it was a relatively short read(156 pages) it was not simple. Actually just as dense as any other book on Atonement, but instead of building the theory out over a lot of page it packed a lot of information in a little span. The biggest disappointment was how half through the book it still was just going over a lot of standard Atonement theory stuff and I found the best part of the book was when McKnight would quote N.T. Wright, which is never a good sign.
While McKnight did bring the community into the theory towards the end of the book overall it was a disappointment. Maybe if I had never read anything on Atonement it would be a food introduction and definitely worth reading for a community attempting to rediscover Atonement in a real way. I must admit the book did have sparks, but never the full enthralment and excitement of The Jesus Creed.
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