When I entered the conference, atonement debate was a still hot potato, but the lobbing of it had settled, and, for the most part, the various camps were simply tucking in to supper, relishing their own spuds and ignoring whatever strange-to-heretical garnishes others chose to digest. And after all, we were johnny-come-latelys to the debate; discussion of a plethora of models of atonement had been vigorous in the wider Christian world for some time before we warmed up the topic. With ears now attuned to this word "atonement," I pick up threads of it everywhere, slowly weaving an eclectic tapestry in shades of openness, variety, possibility, imagination, and reconciliation. The promise of hopefulness, I believe, is what ties them all together. Isn't that what salvation brings? A hope that in spite of our fallenness, we are loved? A hope that in spite of our failures, we have a purpose? A hope that in the end, all the pain and wretchedness will somehow work out all rig...
a smattering of brain droppings from a self-styled writer