Daneen Aker’s article “What if Jesus came to live, not to die?” wonders, "How might we view [the] story of Jesus differently if we taught that he came to show us how to live, instead of coming to die? Dismantling substitutionary atonement is holy troublemaking work indeed..."

On Not Taking Lent out on Our Bodies

By Jodi Belcher (she/her/hers) in Building Faith on Feb 07, 2023

Bad Blood: Christian theology and civil war

Diana Butler Bass

Good Friday Message: “Why Was Jesus Tortured to Death?” Or, Death to Our Toxic Ideas of Why Jesus Lived and Died

by Bret Myers

Traci Smith (of Faithful Families) shares a video series on Atonement Theory. See A Theology of the Cross and Children: Beyond Substitutionary Atonement with Laura Alary; Rethinking Original Sin: A Conversation with Traci Smith and Danielle Shroyer; and Understanding and Sharing a Theology of the Cross with Children: Beyond Substitutionary Atonement with Daneen Akers and Herb Montgomery.

At-One-Ment: Ending the Sacrificial Pattern

Introduce Atonement Theory and its drawbacks with Carl Krieg's Jan. 7, 2022 article in Progressive Christianity; The Big Lie traces the phenomenon of the wealthy and powerful controlling 'the message" since Jesus' day - and subverting Jesus' life to that of "sacrificial atonement" to maintain their power.

Follow this up with preaching supported by Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, a Bible Study group for preachers seeking to dismantle atonement theologies while "preaching the Gospel of One New Humanity" (Eph. 2:15).

Engage the whole congregation in the transformation with any number of resources from this list - and those you'll find developing in this lib guide.