Consuming Passion

"Consuming Passion: Why the Killing of Jesus Really Matters" edited by Simon Barrow and Jonathan Bartley is a fascinating book coming from a serious debate within evangelicalism in the UK. Both Barrow and Bartley are part of "Ekklesia" - a theological think-tank in Britain.

This book represents the reconsideration going on in the UK and other parts of the world that is suffering from the cultural meltdown of Christendom. Basically, the majority of the writers in this book attempt to expose the faulty logic of Christendom (the amalgamation of church and politics) and then re-think some of the detours caused by it. More specifically, the writers challenge the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement from Anselm through Luther and popularized by Calvin. Much of evangelicalism is defined by the belief in penal substitution: that God's law is violated by disobedience and He requires a sacrificial payment for sins in order to justify sinners. Hence, God is the one who requires a sacrificial death of His Son as a substitute in order for our sins to be forgiven. This book challenges this way of telling the story of the importance of Jesus' death.

There are several reasons for this challenge:

1. Penal substitution, the writers say, is a late development in Christian theology. As noted above, before Anselm, Luther, and Calvin, the early church spoke of Christ's death and resurrection in terms of victory over the devil's hold on us.

2. Penal substitution arose during the Christendom context, where oppressive rulers required the death of those that dishonored their authority. Some of the articles challenge whether this is the appropriate Biblical view of God and really what was really happening in the death of Jesus.

3. Some of the writers suggest that the view of God suggested by the penal substitution view presents a violent God and that this view has been responsible for some of the Christian violence in the modern era.

This is a very brief review - and it doesn't do justice to many of the fine articles in this book. This is a very readable book - also quite challenging to many evangelicals who have never questioned the penal substitution story of the cross. It requires looking at Christ's death from a different angle, and for that reason alone, I say it is a book that should be read by thinking evangelicals.