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My Father’s Tears

Reviewed by Alun Brookfield.

Using his own experience of being adopted at a very young age by a Father he came to love dearly, Mark Stibbe explores the relationship between Jesus and his heavenly Father, suggesting that it might be a much more fruitful metaphor with which to speak to the post-modern generations. He writes of the son being cut off – abandoned by his heavenly Father in death. This image of a loving, adoptive heavenly Father is much more in tune with our generation than the angry, sin-obsessed god of a 20th century gospel.

I found this a very moving book to read and I think Mark Stibbe has put his finger on something very important, namely that substitutionary atonement is not the only way of presenting an evangelical gospel. This book should be read by all preachers, if only because it will force us to ask ourselves what we think we are doing in a pulpit and what message do people need to hear.