From a Southern Seminary press release:
Essayists in the Summer 2007 edition of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (SBJT) interact with both evangelical and non-evangelical scholars who reject the penal substitutionary view of the cross, and contributors defend the historic orthodox view of Christ’s atoning death in the place of wrath-deserving sinners.
Another excerpt:
“Sadly, some of the standard objections to penal substitution outside of evangelical theology are creeping their way into evangelical treatments of the cross,” Wellum writes.
“[Some evangelicals] are embracing a typical, yet awful caricature of penal substitution, by arguing that a substitutionary view of the cross does not present us with a loving God but a sadistic one who delights in the abuse of his Son—a kind of divine child abuse. All of these criticisms are groundless and usually reflect a caricature of substitutionary atonement as well as the impoverishment of the critic’s own theology and understanding of Scripture.”
The Atonement in Focus
Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2007
Editorial: Stephen J. Wellum “Articulating, Defending, and Proclaiming Christ our Substitute”
Gregg Allison “A History of the Doctrine of the Atonement”
Peter J. Gentry “The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song” (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
Derek Tidball “Songs of the Crucified One: The Psalms and the Crucifixion”
Simon Gathercole “The Cross and Substitutionary Atonement”
Barry C. Joslin “Christ Bore the Sins of Many: Substitution and the Atonement in Hebrews”
The SBJT Forum “The Atonement under Fire”
Only limited articles are available online. For the complete journal, please order the print copy from the office of The Southern Baptist Theological Journal (journaloffice@sbts.edu).