Salvation not purchased : overcoming the ransom idea to rediscover the original Gospel teaching

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Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 87-90) and index (pages 91-95).
Formatted Contents Note:	Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Assumptions about God -- 2. Why was Jesus killed? -- 3. Sacrificial thinking -- 4. Christian theology of ransom-sacrifice -- 5. Psychological problems with atonement -- 6. What of Christology?
Summary, etc.:	"Many Christians instinctively recoil from 'washed in the blood' theology, but they hesitate to discuss the subject. This book is useful in showing how the 'purchased by the blood' idea is out of step with Jesus, who taught that God reaches the pure in heart without any sacrificial payment. The sacrificial metaphors used by the Apostle Paul have been taken far too literally and turned into an imagined 'mechanics' of salvation in which God is 'paid off.' This manipulative idea has been the source of mischief, from the anti-Semetic superstitions of the Middle Ages, to the pedagogy of shame taught in fundamentalist churches today. Our understanding of Christ will be enhanced if we can recover the original Christology, which was based on Christ as Creator and life-giver." -- Back cover.