For the Christian faith, questions relating to God can essentially be viewed as centred on the person of Jesus Christ. In The New Testament Concept of Atonement, H.D. McDonald uses this key insight to examine mankind’s redemption, focussing on Christ’s atoning act as crucial in shaping God’s relation to humanity and the world.

McDonald analyses elements which hold vital meanings and messages for the Christian doctrine of salvation. In the first six chapters he investigates single terms within the New Testament, such as ‘tree’ or ‘blood’ whose metonymical association with Christ’s redeeming act has often become obscured over time. Then, various biblical interpretations of the Calvary event are studied. In the final section, he analyses the importance of the findings in previous chapters and their implications for Christology. Detailed research underpins the text, in the tradition of Reformed biblical scholarship, with care taken to suggest further reading and trace sources.