Why does the current church in America have a fascination with the atonement of Jesus Christ?
Tony Jones has been writing about the atonement in Lent and his recent post on his blog that point to the Pathos article he wrote. This post has a line in it which sparks my mind.
Jones writes (emphasis is original),
"In other words, there comes a time in every Christian's life when the Sunday School answer, "Jesus died for my sins," falls short. We want to know how it works."
We want to know "how it works". This line reminded me of the great book called "Monoculture: How One Story is Changing Everything" which I cannot recommend highly enough.
Tony Jones has been writing about the atonement in Lent and his recent post on his blog that point to the Pathos article he wrote. This post has a line in it which sparks my mind.
Jones writes (emphasis is original),
"In other words, there comes a time in every Christian's life when the Sunday School answer, "Jesus died for my sins," falls short. We want to know how it works."
We want to know "how it works". This line reminded me of the great book called "Monoculture: How One Story is Changing Everything" which I cannot recommend highly enough.
The author of Monoculture, F. S. Michaels, argues that one story has become the story that drives the world. The first story that held the world together and drove everything was the religious story. The next story that drove the world was science. The current story that is driving the world is the "Economic Story". Michaels defines the Economic story in a very expansive way, and I do not want to diminish her argument by distilling it here. Part of the economic story is the fact that we are driven to think of the world in terms of a transactions.
So we engage in groups for the reason that one day that group may help us out one day. We participate in one thing for potential future help. Why would you participate in a group that you do not "get anything out of"? That is not the way the monoculture story goes. You and I are a part of groups that we get something out of and we are free and obligated to remove ourselves from the group if we are not getting anything from it.
We even "shop" for churches. We want to know how the church can teach me something that I can apply to my life. And we become fascinated with the atonement because it looks like a transaction. It looks economic.
Substitution theory and Ransom theory are defended in the Monoculture of economics because they "fit" much better in the economic story than something like a Girardian approach.
Could it be the church is interested in the atonement only now because the much larger story of economics is telling us it is most important?