Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us

In this earnest interpretation of the Gospel message, McKnight reaches out to believers and potential believers wrestling with the complexities of a pluralistic world. A professor of biblical and theological studies at North Park University and author of more than 10 books, McKnight uses the Genesis story of Adam and Eve to posit that human beings are "cracked Eikons." Created to relate to God and to others but broken through disobedience, men and women need restoration through the Gospel. Comfortably navigating between classical theology and Scripture, McKnight also uses fictional, autobiographical and biographical examples to scrutinize traditional theological concepts such as creation, sin, redemption and grace. In asserting "the Gospel is the work of God to restore human beings to union with God and communion with others," McKnight is highly concerned to counter individualism, which he terms the greatest barrier to embracing grace. Being God's "special creation" is, instead, about being in relationship with others and about embracing responsibility for the whole created world. Although McKnight's prose sometimes hovers awkwardly between that of the theologian and the popular writer, this is a well-grounded introduction to some of Christianity's great themes in an appealingly contemporary style. (Nov.)