A lot has been said about the atonement theology of the theologians, but what of ordinary believers and their church leaders? What, if anything, have they done with "penal substitution" or with "Christus Victor"? How, if at all, have these doctrinal approaches helped ordinary Christians to live more devoted lives or lead good church services? Ben Pugh takes the temperature of the church at various points in its history right up to the present day, noting particular emphases that can be detected in various expressions of personal and corporate faith--whether these be hymns, sermons, magazines, or devotional texts. The book aims not only to describe what the implied atonement theologies of the church have in reality been but also to explore why these have taken the forms that they have. This exploration will shed some fresh light on current debates, building on the findings of the author's earlier work, Atonement Theories: A Way through the Maze.

As the guests at the marriage feast at Canaan desired and preferred the new wine provided by Christ to the old, they were served at first, so a genuine and converted believer desires the new life above the old, having compared the easy yoke and the light burden of his Saviour in comparison to the hard yoke and grievous burden of sin, the world, and the Devil he were under in times past. The new life must never be lived out in an old fashion or mentality, perception, and practices, or else we are saved but not delivered from sin, which is more or else like we are not saved at all. I will give them a new heart, says the Lord. The new heart is for a new life .therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5: 17).

Collects the works of a variety of Christian writers and poets, complemented by photographs of a solitary cross through the seasons, to address such topics as the perspectives of random people wearing crosses, the concept of thankfulness, and the realization of Jesus's work and sacrifices.