Post by ebrayley on Sept 29, 2007 13:05:46 GMT -5
This book, by Richard S. Taylor, concerns the atonement of Christ and what His death means to us. Taylor is a Wesleyan and for many years held to the governmental view of the atonement, until his "conversion" to the penal satisfaction understanding. Here is the preface of the book:
"My life-long fascination with the question of Atonement was given an unpleasant impetus when for some years I was a reader of the senior comprehensive exams at a Wesleyan seminary. Years after year I was distressed by the cloudy grasp of this basic Christian dogma displayed by a very high percentage of the students. In trying to analyze this serious weakness, I found myself probing this wonderful but complex area of truth more carefully. Several times over the years I have attempted to lead seminars and teach courses on the Atonement at seminary level.
During most of that time I was a typical governmentalist - thumbs down on any kind of penal satisfaction notion! Along with many of my generation I had been shaped in my thinking not only by H. Orton Wiley but by John Miley. Through Miley's influence, in particular, I had come to assume that the governmental theory of the Atonement was more cogenial to Wesleyan-Arminianism than any other theory.
However, the more I studied the Scripture the more restless I became about my too-easily-adopted assumptions. Very gradually I found myself convinced that Miley had missed the mark. This book is the result of my "conversion." And I have been delighted along the way to discover that as far as John Wesley is concerned, I am now more "Wesleyan" than ever before. Therefore I am not the least apologetic!"