Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition Book

Hans Boersma examines atonement theology as an expression of God's hospitality toward us. God is love and he has moved toward us in the Son who gives his life as an atonement for our sin. This opens the way for God to welcome to all of humanity. But what actually happened on the cross and if Jesus is a sin sacrifice for us does that make God a participant in violence? Worse, does it make God the originator of violence? Many modern theologians have seen in penal substitution a God who uses violence to buy forgiveness and in doing so gives a rational for violent behavior for anyone under the guise of love. The church has not always been as hospitable as God and has too often participated in the violence or oppression of the strong over the weak. Does the rational for this behavior rest in our understanding of a violent God? Boersma wants to address these questions head on. He takes seriously the post-modern critique of atonement theology as well their the desire for a world of perfect hospitality, a world without violence. He surveys the three classic atonement theories, moral influence, penal substitution and Christos Victor and while he leans toward the latter he shows that they all have something to contribute to our limited understanding of the divine work of God in Jesus. Boersma interacts with post-modern theologians showing that radical hospitality is not possible this side of eternity because while our door is open to the stranger it is also open to the devil. In a bold move he asserts that divine hospitality is only possible with exclusion, which is violence. He also critiques his own Reformed tradition. The high Calvinism of the Post Reformation did not focus on the hospitality of God (as Calvin did) but on exclusion, creating an unnecessarily violent portrait of God. My one critique of Boersma's work is that while he is a clear and gifted writer, dealing with complex ideas he rarely speaks in non-academic language. This is not Boersma's problem, but it is mine. I live in a colloquial world where we say things like "God saves sinners who know they are sinners" There is nothing like that in this book which makes it a slow read for the amateur theologians.