Great set of posts here looking at some ’emergent’ theology questions (think Brian McLaren). I particularly liked this bit on atonement theories:

“brian said that at least among evangelicals there is almost a litmus test regarding one’s adherence to the “penal substitution” theory of the atonement which portrays god as a wrathful god because of human sin, and requiring sacrifice or punishment for that sin, and that rather than punish humans, jesus was the ‘sacrificial lamb’ sent in humanity’s place, and by his suffering and death he frees all of us from our guilt. the issue, brian said, is ‘who was punishing jesus on the cross?’ if you look at it as a case of the romans or the religious leaders, then it fits with a sort of interpretation of the powers killing jesus to maintain their own power. god rejects such violence and injustice and the resurrection is a final ‘no’ to such evil and the first fruits of god’s ‘yes’ to reconciliation and justice. but if you look at it as god punishing jesus because he was angry about our sinfulness, doesn’t that make the christian community like a disfunctional family who pretend that the dad is nice all the while that same dad beats his kids in private? it makes for confusing god-relationships, it makes for fearful christians, and it makes of god one whose right it is to make people suffer when they’ve done wrong. in a powerful response, miroslav said simply that is heresy. there is no ‘third party’ who is punished on our behalf. the guilt is not ‘transferable’. it is god in jesus who takes the evil and sin of the world and by taking it in, then can transform it once for all, and marking the deepest reality of the future glimpsed now–no place for retribution, for suffering, for tears and pain and death. and by our participation in the sufferings of god in christ we also die to such sin and are reborn a new creation, ready to move towards gods future of reconciliation…”

Quite so.