The Evangelical Alliance UK and the London School of Theology recently jointly held an Atonement Symposium earlier this month on 6-8 July, and the event attracted more than 200 attendants.
The quality of the papers delivered, pleased the Evangelical Alliance UK (EAUK) who described the event as a whole as being fruitful and enjoyable for all.
The second day of the meeting did see tragedy take place though as the 7/7 London bombings took place. The EAUK stated in its release, "On the second day of our meeting, we were deeply shocked to hear about the terrorist bombings in central London. While it might have seemed that our scholarly deliberations were far removed from these atrocities, we were led in our worship and dialogue together to remember that in his death Christ bore all the pain, terror and sin of the world, and in his resurrection offered hope in the face of evil, death and despair."
However, as the symposium continued it became obvious to all that there were greatly varied opinions on the precise formulation of atonement theology, and in particular on penal substitution theory of atonement.
Not wanting to seek to gloss over the differences in opinions, the EAUK went deep into the theological substance behind the meaning of the cross.
At the gathering, "Steve Chalke acknowledged that much of his own widely-reported opposition to penal substitution had been provoked by the crude and distorted, but still popular, versions of the theory often taught in our churches. We also note that he challenged its more sophisticated proponents to avoid association with the image of a vengeful father wreaking punishment on an innocent son—which, he claimed, has distorted our culture’s understanding of God," said an EAUK release.
