The Subordinate Substitute

“This is a significant contribution to the understanding of the limits that Christian theological orthodoxy imposes on theological arguments that deviate from the homoousion of the persons of the Trinity. Peter Carnley is relentless in bringing us back to the theological consensus of the undivided church.”
—Philip Freier, archbishop, Anglican Diocese of Melbourne

“Peter Carnley’s work constitutes a major challenge to two cherished evangelical views that are often regarded as essential to the very essence of the gospel—the alleged ‘eternal functional subordination of the Son to the Father’ and the outworking of this in the doctrine of redemption in the form of ‘penal substitutionary theory’ of the atonement. This volume will confirm the view of many that the very survival of Christian faith may in large part depend on the need of evangelical Christianity to reinvent itself.”
—Steve Chalke, author of The Lost Message of Jesus

“Peter Carnley, both bishop and first-rate theologian, is thoroughly orthodox and Bible-centered. He defends the Trinity against misguided Evangelical claims for the Son’s eternal subordination to the Father, which underpin the penal substitutionary theory of atonement that he forensically demolishes. Instead, Carnley commends a Bible-based, participatory, richly personal view of salvation that is ecclesial and eucharistic rather than narrowly juridical. He offers a decisive corrective to a theological, spiritual, and missional wrong turn.”
—Scott Cowdell, research professor in theology, Charles Sturt University