Momentous things are a-foot: a brief post outlining what is yet to come

Well, I know I did promise a follow-up post that would serve as a sequal to the one which succeeded Scot McKnight's visit to IBI and his talk on atonement theory. I promised I would cover the remainder of what Scot covered that night. However, upon subsequent reflection (as I began to think about the atonement event and its vast scope) I have decided to post up a series of reflections on different aspects of the death of Jesus Christ instead. So rather than one more post summarising a lecture now in the near-distant past, I thought I'd paste up a series of posts investigating about 12 different images of the atonement event, taken from Scripture. An ideal friend for such a task is Mark Driscoll's (http://www.theresurgence.org/) excellent book, Death By Love - which I will make extensive use of as I blog about the incredible and glorious event of the atonement.

The motive? First: to enter deeper into that profound mystery of love and divine self-sacrifice that the atonement event signifies. Second: many young Christians I have met through Immanuel and elsewhere struggle to understand why the death of Jesus is ongoingly significant for them. It appears, at times, as if the cross is seen as an event in the past with significance only for the beginning of the Christian life. Perhaps many struggle to see the significance of the atonement event for day-by-day living. Driscoll does a remarkably brilliant job of relating the purpose of the atonement event to the messy, despairing lives of those he addresses in the book. And that, to my mind, models precisely how theology ought to be done: the effective application of the events in Scripture then to the souls of people living now. After Driscoll's example, I think that passionate, stirring soul-work is vital when it comes to relating the atonement to daily life. People need to see how the cross still applies to day-by-day struggles; how the event of the atonement speaks into the bleak mess of doubt, addiction, abuse and chronic depression.

So, in (what I project will be approximately) 12 posts (over the course of a yet to be determined time frame) I will be exploring the atonement event, the death of Jesus of Nazareth by crucifixion in the year 33AD. The starting point in each case will be a text from Scripture.

In the meantime, cropping up between these posts will be a few more reflections on John Water's book, Beyond Consolation. I realise that material from the ApologetiXperiment on postmodernism was also promised. That will also appear over the coming days, in little pieces.

Yours,

The Scribbling Apprentice