Atonement and Ecclesiology

NT Wright often complains that traditional Christology works only with the two poles of the gospel story—incarnation and atonement—and ignores the middle.

A number of recent writers have complained that atonement theology has been detached from ecclesiology.

The two complaints are linked, and they have a common solution.

If we read the whole gospel as atonement theology, then ecclesiology is integral to it. Jesus’ work includes not only His climactic death for the of the world, but the formation of a people through His ministry of healing, teaching, feasting, cleansing, and exorcism. 

When we read the gospels whole, we discover that the cross is the climax of a narrative about the incarnate Son’s founding of the church.