(RNS) — When he arrived at Christ Episcopal Church, a suburban congregation outside Cleveland, in September 2024, the Rev. Charles Graves IV said, one of his first encounters with a parishioner was a word of caution about the membership’s take on a key point of theology. “You know, we don’t teach penal substitutionary atonement here,” Graves recalled the parishioner saying.
Graves wasn’t surprised. A cradle Episcopalian, Graves, 34, like many Christians, was taught that Jesus had died for his sins and for the sins of the world. But he realizes that many Christians also struggle with the idea that Christ’s crucifixion was a result of God’s retribution, and the Yale Divinity School graduate frames the question for himself differently.
“I don’t teach that we have an angry, vengeful God that was so wrathful over our sinfulness that God sacrificed God’s son, God’s self, to himself, for his own vengeance. That doesn’t hold for me,” said Graves. “Jesus, having borne the pain and suffering of the cross … allows us to be liberators and to be liberat …
