40 Questions about the Atonement is one of many works within the 40 Questions series published by Kregel Academic. As such, the goal of the work (like others in the series) is to provide a succinct introduction to the given theological topic which it addresses. Likewise, as most topics in the series, the book is written from a moderately-conservative Evangelical perspective.
The author of this work, the Baptist New Testament scholar Channing Crisler, is very thorough in his treatment of the material from a biblical, historical, and contemporary systematic theological perspective. Despite being a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, the author very clearly shares the historic Lutheran concern for the centrality of the atonement motif of penal substitution and its direct connection with the doctrine of sola fide. Crisler successfully shows that the Old Testament concepts of moral law, judgment, and sacrificial atonement feed directly into the New Testament understanding of the work of Christ as an act of substitutionary payment for sins.
Beyond his survey of the biblical material, Crisler deals with key atonement motifs such as Christus Victor, moral exemplarism, the Governmental Theory, and others. Although he recognizes the important effects of the atonement that these motifs highlight, they nevertheless do not constitute the central mechanism of the work of Christ, namely, Christ’s necessary payment for sins on the cross.
Overall, this survey of the work of Christ is well-written, engaging, and useful for classroom instruction. From the Lutheran perspective, the only possible flaws would be the fact that the author does not connect atonement to objective justification or the sacraments.
Jack D. Kilcrease
Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology
Christ School of Theology, Brookings, South Dakota