> [!info] Reading notes — [[Robert Farrar Capon]], *The Fingerprints of God*. At last, he’d found somebody who could say that the death and resurrection of Jesus were not transactions but mysteries — not a new religion, or even a religion at all, but a New Covenant with the whole human race. “Religious” acts invariably cause us to image God as someone who stands at a distance from the human race, and who insists that he won’t bridge the gap until we make some appropriate effort to close it from our side. What is the definition of “religion” at work here? Chapter 2 thoughts So, here Capon argues against seeing the Atonement as something transactional. He is opposing the typical view of paying a ransom, or quenching God’s anger or images of that sort. He lifts up the Incarnation over the Atonement. It is by the fact that Jesus is that grace is given to us all as a gift. It is from this that he affirms the argument that God would have accepted any sacrifice Jesus had to offer — it didn’t have to be the cross. This chapter covered: - against transactionalism - Two realities: bad and good, and God’s business in both - Pauline mystery - Incarnation theology in Ephesians and Colossians - Genius of John --- **Related:** [[Capon on the Problem of Evil]] · [[The Third Peacock]]