The Mosaic of Atonement Video Lectures

The Mosaic of Atonement Video Lectures offers a fresh and integrated approach to historic models of atonement.

Modern treatments of the atonement have tended toward two extremes by either singling out one model as most important, or presenting multiple images with no order of arrangement. This video series takes a different approach, exploring the four "pieces" of atonement through the image of a Christ-shaped mosaic:

1. The Feet: Recapitulation
2. The Heart: Penal Substitution
3. The Head: Christus Victor
4. The Hands: Moral Influence

Unlike a photograph, a mosaic allows each piece to retain its recognizable particularity, while also integrating them in the service of a single larger image. In the great mosaics of age-old Christian churches, the goal is not to construct the image, as in a puzzle, but to appreciate it. So too with this mosaic of atonement doctrine. While no one model is set above or against the others, The Mosaic of Atonement Video Lectures notes particular ways in which the "pieces"--the feet, heart, head, and hands--mutually support one another to form a more holistic vision of Christ's work.

Session Titles and Runtimes:

1 - Introduction: Laying Out the Pieces (23 min)

2 - Early Will I Seek Thee: Irenaeus on Jesus as the True Adam (19 min)

3 - Where Are You, Adam? Recapitulation and the Human Origins Debate (22 min)

4 - How Beautiful the Feet: Recapitulation and the Foundation of Atonement (19 min)

5 - Older than the Pews: Penal Substitution in Early Christian History (20 min)

6 - According to the Scriptures: The Bible and Penal Substitution (18 min)

7 - Right but Repulsive? Further Critiques of Penal Substitution (24 min)

8 - The Beating Heart: Penal Substitution as the Hub (Not the Whole) of the Atonement (25 min)

9 - Triumph through Trickery: Reexamining the Role of Deception in Christ’s Victory (24 min)

10 - Winking at the Devil: Examining the Ontic Status of the Satan (23 min)

11 - O Sacred Head, Now What? Staged Triumph as the Telos of Atonement (17 min)

12 - Beckoning Love: Rethinking Abelard and Moral Influence (14 min)

13 - Unmasking Violence: Girard and Moral Influence (14 min)

14 - Perfecting Hand(s): The Spirit’s Place in Moral Influence (14 min)

15 - Conclusion: “This Is My Body” (5 min)