Over the centuries the church developed a number of metaphors, such as penal substitution or the ransom theory, to speak about Christ\'s death on the cross and the theological concept of the atonement.
He argues instead that to plumb the rich theological depths of the atonement, we must consider all the metaphors of Atonement and ask whether they each serve a large.
Yet too often, says Scot McKnight, Christians have held to the supremacy of one metaphor over against the others, to their detriment.
Over the centuries the church developed a number of metaphors, such as penal substitution or the ransom theory, to speak about Christ\'s death on the cross and the theological concept of the atonement