Beyond One Story: Exploring the Atonement

In this episode, host Joshua Hopping — former pastor, church planter, and lay theologian — takes listeners on a 30–minute journey through the many ways Christians have understood the cross throughout history. From the early church’s vision of liberation and union, to medieval debates about satisfaction and love, to Reformation emphases on justice, and even modern explorations of scapegoating and nonviolence — this conversation opens space for those questioning their inherited faith to discover that the story of atonement is far bigger than a single theory.If you’re deconstructing, doubting, or simply curious, this episode invites you to see the cross not as one rigid explanation but as a mosaic of meaning, with room for wonder, paradox, and hope.