Book Review: The Atonement
Thursday, May 23, 2013 at 5:35PM 
The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance
As church librarian, I do a monthly review of a book found in our church library for the church newsletter. Can you believe that even though I’ve recommended this book over and over, I’ve never done a proper review of it? So here you go, a draft version June’s review. Want to help me proofread/edit it before I sent it off to the newsletter editor? This is the edited version, about 50 words shorter than what I originally posted.
Leon Morris was an Australian New Testament scholar and author most noted for The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, his scholarly work examining the biblical words related to the cross of Christ and defending the historical doctrine of the atonement from the testimony of Scripture. It is considered by many to be a classic, but it’s also a technical book, written by a scholar for other scholars, and not accessible to the layperson.
The Atonement was put together from the material in The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, but presented in a simpler, less technical form. We might think of it as the average Christian’s version of Apostolic Preaching. It’s a biblical study of the terms associated with the atonement—“the great words,” to quote the introduction, “used to bring out the meaning of the cross.”
Morris shows us the multifaceted nature of the cross work of Christ as described through biblical words—justification, sacrifice, propitiation, redemption, and reconciliation, to list a few. Christ’s death can be viewed through many lenses: as payment in exchange for freedom (redemption), as the turning of enemies into friends (reconciliation), or the turning away of wrath (propitiation), and more. Each perspective on this gracious act at the center of Christianity adds to our understanding of its significance.
What’s more, even though it was written in the 1980s drawing from research done in the 1950s, many of the arguments in The Atonement, especially those found in the chapter on propitiation, are applicable to current debates about the nature of the atonement.
The Atonement is on a very short list of basic theology books I’d recommend to any believer. It’s of classic quality, but not difficult to read—and short enough for those who do a page count first and eliminate anything over 200 pages. And what’s more important than understanding what Christ accomplished for us on the cross?
Reader Comments (2)
I love this. I'm with you on the sentiment that this is one book every Christian should read. I was so sad when I finished it!
Putting this on the list for my church library.