We are reading Roger Olson’s Mosaic of Christian Belief as the primary text in our Overview of Christian Teachings class. Olson is a respected evangelical scholar and church historian, and he’s not exactly what you would consider a left-winger. Since there has been quite a bit of atonement debate going on recently, being Easter season and all, a quote from this week’s reading on atonement struck me as timely:

Some Christian theologians do elevate one particular theory or model of Christ’s atoning work to the status of dogma and require belief in it of all who call themselves Christians. Some denominations of Christianity have made belief in one particular atonement theory a matter of status confessionis, required confession of belief. But only a few hard-core fundamentalists have insisted that all who affirm other theories of atonement cannot be Christians. (Many fundamentalist Protestants of the twentieth century included John Calvin’s and the Puritans’ “penal substitution theory” among the few “fundamentals of the faith.” Many conservative Protestant denominations require affirmation of that theory by candidates for ordination to ministry.) The big picture of Christian belief, however, includes as absolutely normative only belief that Christ’s life, death and resurrection are God’s unique, special, unsurpassable provision of salvation as reconciliation and transformation for humanity. Exactly how God reconciled the world to himself by means of Christ’s death on the cross is the subject of much speculation and theological reflection and is a reason for great diversity among Christians. (255)

Some of the people commenting on Tony’s post on the atonement could use a little of Olson’s historical perspective.