Includes bibliographical references (pages [185]-189) and index.

Approaching the Atonement -- Several Patristic Accounts of Atonement -- Ransom Account of Atonement -- Satisfaction Doctrine of Atonement -- Moral Exemplarism and Atonement -- Penal Substitutionary Atonement -- Governmental and Vicarious Penitence Doctrines of Atonement -- Problem of Atoning Violence -- Mashup and Kaleidoscope Accounts of Atonement -- Participation and Atonement.

"Theologian Oliver Crisp explores the meaning of the cross and the various ways that the death of Jesus has been interpreted in the church's history-from ransom theory in the early church to penal substitutionary theory to more recent feminist critiques. What emerges is a more complex, expansive, and fruitful understanding of the atonement and its significance for the Christian faith today"--