Atonement and The New Perspective: a review

I've loved getting this book into my hands (well, more accurately, onto my screen). It is addressing a missing piece in current thinking about Israel and Christian continuity and discontinuity -and a logical next step. It is written particularly with Evangelical concerns about atonement in mind and is well aware of the history of the doctrine before and into the Reformation and beyond into the Evangelical movements. It is undertaken with critical sympathy and there is a really helpful outline of both the new perspective on Paul and on the main points at issue in the Evangelical conversation about penal substitutionary atonement. This book then brings these things together and explores the implications of NPP for PSA -yes, eventually you do have to get used to those acronyms otherwise it would become tiresome since they are used frequently enough to need shortening.

What I enjoyed was having a tour of the NPP introducing some important voices and basic differentiations of position. There was a helpful laying-out of atonement theories with a very useful reframing of it in relation to biblical evidence. It is approached with sympathy for the Reformed position and offers an alternative approach which actually is related strongly to Reformed core theology.

It was good too that there was discussion of the issue of supercessionism in relation to atonement in a way that takes seriously Evangelical concerns -and explicitly so. It doesn't dodge the difficulties but does a nice job of reframing the debate with extensive examination of the religious background of Paul and reminding us of the inaccuracies of our lazy contemporary readings of first century Jewish and Christian religion. I think that the way that Burnhope plots to take things forward is likely to be productive and helpful. For some who are wedded to PSA, however, it is going to be challenging to have to take seriously that it probably doesn't make sense to hold onto that. A good case is made, however, for a mixed economy and plurality of ways of thinking about the cross, but the covenant-making motif offered here is probably about right by the evidence and by the systematics.

I'm likely to be thinking about this and integrating its insights into my reflection and preaching for some time to come.

(99+) New Title from Stephen Burnhope: Atonement and The New Perspective: The God of Israel, Covenant, and the Cross | Dr Steve Burnhope - Academia.edu:

By way of disclaimer. I received and e-copy of this book for review purposes. In doing so I was in no way obliged to review favourably (or otherwise) simply to review within a reasonable period of receiving a copy.

Link-Love for this Review

Atonement and the New Perspective on Amazon
Stephen Burnhope’s Website
Stephen Burnhope on Twitter
Stephen Burnhope on Facebook

Tags:  #AtonementAndTheNewPerspective