Books by Stephen Finlan

The Origins of, and Controversy about, the Atonement Doctrine

This revised edition of The Family Metaphor in Jesus'' Teaching examines the family metaphors for God (Father) and for believers (""children,"" ""brothers"") that Jesus chose to use. Jesus not only held up a child as an example of receptivity, but he defended actual children, warning against despising ""one of these little ones."" Using current discussions of the ""equal-regard family"" and of the importance of ""human fathering,"" Stephen Finlan explores how the gospel entails a changed model of parenting and of marriage and a new approach to spiritual growth.""In this careful and beautifully written book, Stephen Finlan demonstrates not only the importance of the family metaphor or the message of Jesus, but also that the equal-regard family is not just a construction of abstract theology, but rather has a true basis in the Christian Scriptures.""--Don Browning, author of Equality and the FamilyStephan 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).

A second collection of scholarly essays on the subject of deification, exploring the theological significance of the concept from a range of historical and contemporary perspectives.

A comprehensive collection of scholarly essays on the subject of deification, or the process of becoming like God, discussing the development of the concept in the Bible and in Christian theology. Also available as a two-volume set.

This revised edition of The Family Metaphor in Jesus' Teaching examines the family metaphors for God (Father) and for believers ("children," "brothers") that Jesus chose to use. Jesus not only held up a child as an example of receptivity, but he defended actual children, warning against despising "one of these little ones." Using current discussions of the "equal-regard family" and of the importance of "human fathering," Stephen Finlan explores how the gospel entails a changed model of parenting and of marriage and a new approach to spiritual growth.

Beneath the commonplace affirmation that Jesus paid for our sins lie depths of implication: Did God demand a blood sacrifice to assuage divine anger? Is sacrifice (consciously or unconsciously) intended to induce the deity to show favor? What underlies the various metaphors for atonement used in the Bible?Here, Stephen Finlan surveys psychological theories that help us to understand beliefs about sacrifice and atonement and what they may reveal about patterns of injury, guilt, shame, and appeasement. Early chapters examine the language in both testaments of purity and the scapegoat, and of payment, obligation, reciprocity, and redemption. Later chapters review theories of the origins of atonement thinking in fear and traumatic childhood experience, in ambivalent or avoidant attachment to the parents, and in poisonous pedagogy. The theories of Sandor Rado, Mary Ainsworth, Erik Erikson, and Alice Miller are examined, then Finlan draws conclusions about the moral responsibility of appropriating or rejecting atonement metaphors. His arguments bear careful consideration by all who live with these metaphors and their effects today.