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Many ministers instinctively recoil from "washed in the blood" theology, but they hesitate to discuss the subject. This book is useful in showing how the "purchased by the blood" idea is out of step with Jesus, who taught that God reaches the pure in heart without any sacrificial payment. The sacrificial metaphors used by the Apostle Paul have been taken far too literally and turned into an imagined "mechanics" of salvation in which God is "paid off." This manipulative idea has been the source of mischief, from the anti-Semitic superstitions of the Middle Ages, to the pedagogy of shame taught in fundamentalist churches today. Our understanding of Christ will be enhanced if we can recover the original Christology, which was based on Christ as Creator and life-giver.
About the author
Stephan Finlan is pastor of Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, Providence, Rhode Island. He has taught theology at Fordham, Drew, Seton Hall, and Durham Universities. He is coeditor of Theosis: Deification in Christian Theology (Pickwick, 2006), The Apostle Paul and the Pauline Tradition (2008), Options on Atonement (2007), and Problems with Atonement (2005).
