March 11, 2016
I wish to express my gratitude as well as congratulations to my readers for enduring the vicissitudes of this atypical blog site. At this point it seems appropriate to give a bit of explanation for newcomers, then review its irregular history, and finally to attempt a peek into the future.
For some time, I had been pondering how to communicate several decades of writing on the topic of Christ’s Atonement. Naturally, several friends suggested writing a book. Problem is, I had much more material than would fit handily under two covers. Moreover, my notes on the subject were cumulative and betrayed sharp transitions at points of fresh insight, as well as stages or phases of cumulative development. It occurred to me that keeping these changes visible might actually be helpful to many readers who were likewise struggling with our prevalent traditions on atonement.
Then in early 2012, I happened to view the blog site of my friend Ted Gossard (www.communityofjesus.wordpress.com). It quickly dawned on me that my extensive notes on the Atonement might fit perfectly into a blogging format. I could post the notes chronologically and comment occasionally on my departures from earlier formulations, using the occasion to reflect on the process of hermeneutics (the discipline of interpretation) and how my thinking has changed in light of further reflection on Scripture plus the input of the many historic attempts to “get it right.”
So I kicked things off slowly with only a handful of blogs in March, 2012. I explained my personal background and rationale for the site and its name in the “About” page at the very top of the site. Because of the chronological sequence of my notes, I wish the newer blogs could appear below the older ones in a manner that seems more normal and accessible as well as less cumbersome when searching for antecedent references. All of which is to say, this is not a normal blog site. It is an attempt to make private notes public for comment, critique, and hopefully improvement. This would aid me in undertaking the writing of a book.
As I entered old notes, I was able to further ponder the difficulty of making fundamental alterations in long-ingrained assumptions. But I was definitely getting a rush out of posting discoveries hot from the anvil…at least at the time I actually penned them (originally on 3 by 5 note cards, but soon transitioning to 4 by 6 cards—virtually none of my notes were composed on a typewriter or computer, even to this day).
A couple of years into my posts, I started adding tags. I know, I know, that should have been an obvious thing to do in order to draw readers. And I hope to go back to those earlier posts and add tags, including Scripture references. I also eventually discovered the utility of back-posting blogs to earlier dates. In fact, that’s what I did throughout most of 2015, probably to the confusion of some readers. Especially after I started posting my blogs through Facebook, folks may have wondered why most of what appeared day by day was dated way back in 2014! Well, my simple-minded strategy was to eventually “catch up” with the present! While working on other research and writing, I figured I could still post my older Atonement notes during those past months when I was too busy to do any regular daily blogging. This seemed more sensible also because my entries are not linked to current events that would require a corresponding date so that readers made the connection. Not that my notes were abstracted from the historic flow of events; they were simply more connected to one another and to my exposure to my own reading schedule on the Atonement—ideas and authors that were scattered throughout modern history.
Then came several key interruptions of that steady chronological blogging. The series of some two dozen blogs in response to Jesse Morrell’s anticipated hardcopy publication of his online book, The Vicarious Atonement of Christ, which espoused the “governmental” view developed by Hugo Grotius, absorbed an immense amount of study and writing time. Then my experience early last winter and spring at New City Fellowship in Grand Rapids demanded the lion’s share of attention. I still have several month’s worth of blog posts on that episode!
The upshot is that I stopped any further blog posts with later dates after posting the remarkable excerpts of John Lightfoot’s expositions concerning the wrath of God and Christ. So for anyone who opens my blog site, those have been at the top of the site for many months. All of my other posts have been backdated to August and September 2014. Those keep getting posted on Facebook, of course, but that’s why you don’t see them when you open the site.
I do have a deadline, however, for posting my regular Atonement notes. October 31st of 2017 will be the 500th anniversary of “Reformation Day,” when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses. I will have much to say about Luther’s development ere that date approaches. But in the meantime, I would encourage readers to start reading at the beginning of this blog site and simply process through. Later notes will often make best sense in light of those earlier ones, since I may leave out the explication of assumptions that had earlier demanded fresh energy to readjust, but which I now take for granted, to the puzzlement of some readers.
Lastly, thank you so much for taking the time and energy to visit this blog site. I have actually had less than a score of blog responses over the last four years. For that I am somewhat grateful since it leaves more time to enter notes. But I have greatly appreciated each and every response I have received. I only hope I have provided worthy responses in return. After all, there’s nothing that can’t be improved!
The Premial Atonement 