ABSTRACT
A central New Atheist critique focuses on doctrines of “salvation” and in particular the Christian doctrine of atonement through the death of a supposedly innocent human, Jesus of Nazareth. It is not altogether obvious that the bloody death of a first-century Jew is the kind of thing that can accomplish salvation. Rather, the violent death can appear, as Richard Dawkins notes, “vicious, sado-masochistic and repellant.” The challenge, then, is to provide a model of the atonement that is rationally acceptable and morally cogent. Wessling endeavors to meet this challenge by drawing from both the traditional Christian notion of deification as well as contemporary philosophical-theological work on the Spirit’s indwelling to provide a framework for understanding the crucifixion that holds out the promise of being genuinely good news.
