Simon Gathercole’s New Book on Penal Substitution

Just saw this in the SBL catalogue from Baker!

Simon Gathercole, Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul, 144 pp., due out in Feb 2015.

In recent decades, the church and academy have witnessed intense debates concerning the concept of penal substitution to describe Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Some claim it promotes violence, glorifies suffering and death, and amounts to divine child abuse. Others argue it plays a pivotal role in classical Christian doctrine. Here world-renowned New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole offers an exegetical and historical defense of the traditional substitutionary view of the atonement. He provides critical analyses of various interpretations of the atonement and places New Testament teaching in its Old Testament and Greco-Roman contexts, demonstrating that the interpretation of atonement in the Pauline corpus must include substitution.

For a heads up on what Simon has to say, see his ‘The Cross and Substitutionary Atonement.’ SBET 21 (2003): 152-63.