Rethinking the Atonement - by David M Moffitt

About the Book

A leading New Testament scholar challenges reductive views of the atonement and offers new perspectives on the saving significance of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in the New Testament.

Book Synopsis

Traditional views of the atonement tend to be reductive, focusing solely on Jesus's death on the cross. In his 2011 groundbreaking book Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews, David Moffitt challenged that paradigm, showing how the atonement is a fuller process. It involves not only Jesus's death but also his resurrection, ascension, offering, and exaltation.

In the succeeding years, Moffitt has continued to expand and clarify his thinking on this issue. This book offers a more fulsome articulation of his work on the atonement that reflects his recent thinking on the topic. Moffitt continues to challenge reductive views of the atonement, primarily from the book of Hebrews, but he engages other New Testament passages as well. He offers fresh insights on sacrifice and atonement, the importance of resurrection and ascension, Jesus's role as priest, and a new perspective on Hebrews.

This important book brings Moffitt's award-winning and influential scholarship to a broader audience. The book includes a foreword by N. T. Wright.

From the Back Cover

"Compels us to rethink what we thought we knew about the New Testament"

David Moffitt challenges reductive views of the atonement and offers new perspectives on the saving significance of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in the New Testament.

"Rarely does a new body of scholarship come along that compels us to rethink what we thought we knew about the New Testament. Moffitt's work on the Letter to the Hebrews is exactly that sort of game-changing intervention."
--Richard B. Hays, Duke University (emeritus)

"Moffitt makes a compelling and urgent case for re-examining the saving significance of Jesus's resurrection and ascension (as well as his death) within the biblical understanding of atonement. This volume will be indispensable for the study of Hebrews, and it should be foundational for the development of atonement theology."
--Loveday Alexander, University of Sheffield (emerita)

"An eye-opening series of arguments, each one of which now needs to be pondered and integrated into our overall assessment of Hebrews and its contribution to early Christian thought as a whole."
--N. T. Wright (from the foreword)

"Moffitt has changed not only how I read Hebrews but how I conceive of my faith. I'm eager to put this volume into the hands of my students and parishioners."
--Amy Peeler, Wheaton College

"This collection of essays is not simply a rethinking but a Copernican Revolution in atonement theology, both because it concerns the movement of a celestial body (the risen and ascended Jesus Christ) and because it calls for a reversal of some traditional soteriological polarities."
--Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"Rethinking the Atonement promises to be no less than field changing. It will no longer be possible to write on the atonement, let alone Christology, without engaging in detail with the exegetical arguments that Moffitt presents. I cannot recommend this remarkable volume highly enough!"
--Alan J. Torrance, University of St. Andrews (emeritus)

"A spectacular set of essays from one of the greatest living New Testament scholars--David Moffitt. This collection provides a convenient and affordable anthology of some of his most influential work."
--Madison N. Pierce, Western Theological Seminary

About the Author

David M. Moffitt (PhD, Duke University) is reader in New Testament studies at the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. His book Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews received a Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise in 2013. He is the coauthor of New Testament Basics: A Guide for Reading and Interpreting the Text and the coeditor of Son, Sacrifice, and Great Shepherd: Studies on the Epistle to the Hebrews and A Scribe Trained for the Kingdom of Heaven: Essays on Christology and Ethics in Honor of Richard B. Hays.