Atonement Theology in Conversation with Islamic Thought

Brent Neely

2024  |  264pp pb  |  ISBN: 978-1-917059-16-9

Atonement Theology in Conversation with Islamic Thought is a work of comparative theology which brings Christian atonement doctrine into conversation with Islamic critique of that doctrine and Christian soteriology generally. After an Islamic response to ‘atonement’ has been distilled from a substantial collection of modern Muslim scholars, the thrust of these criticisms is then brought to bear upon three theological frameworks of redemption represented by three distinctive theologians. The first two, Anselm and Barth, taken as a pair, represent developments in an atonement of vicarious suffering – the lightning rod concept that attracts so much Muslim disapproval. The third, Kathryn Tanner, exemplifies a strong contrast, a modern iteration of incarnational or participatory atonement. 

Goaded by the thought of the Islamic conversation partners, the study aims to catalyze and refine Christian theologizing of divine-human reconciliation. The intended results are a modest advance in a Christian apprehension of Islamic thought; an improved posture from which to communicate the Gospel within an Islamic context; and, primarily, a careful and fortified Christian construal of atonement as such.