What do you think?
Rate this book
Reclaiming the Atonement: An Orthodox Theology of Redemption: Volume 1: The Incarnate Word
In response to popular demand, Patrick Henry Reardon presents the first of three volumes exploring redemption and salvation through the lens of Scripture, patristics, and liturgics, as well as through history, philosophy, language, literature, and psychology. He brings all these perspectives together to show how the whole of Christ’s work—from Incarnation to Ascension—accomplishes the “at-one-ment” of God with man.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 21, 2015
62 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Henry Reardon
16 books36 followersPatrick Henry Reardon is pastor of All Saints' Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and a senior editor of Touchstone magazine.
Father Patrick was educated at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), St. Anselm's College (Rome), The Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome), and St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary (South Canaan, PA).
He has authored many books including: Christ in the Psalms, Christ in His Saints, The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job, Chronicles of History and Worship: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Books of Chronicles, and Creation and the Patriarchal Histories: Orthodox Reflections on the Book of Genesis.
In addition, Father Patrick has published over a thousand articles, editorials, and reviews, in "Books and Culture", "Touchstone", "The Scottish Journal of Theology", "The Catholic Biblical Quarterly", "Pro Ecclesia", "St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly", and other journals on three continents over the past forty-plus years.
Father Patrick was educated at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), St. Anselm's College (Rome), The Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome), and St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary (South Canaan, PA).
He has authored many books including: Christ in the Psalms, Christ in His Saints, The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job, Chronicles of History and Worship: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Books of Chronicles, and Creation and the Patriarchal Histories: Orthodox Reflections on the Book of Genesis.
In addition, Father Patrick has published over a thousand articles, editorials, and reviews, in "Books and Culture", "Touchstone", "The Scottish Journal of Theology", "The Catholic Biblical Quarterly", "Pro Ecclesia", "St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly", and other journals on three continents over the past forty-plus years.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 28, 2020
This book is the first of a series on the atonement by Patrick Henry Reardon, pastor of an Orthodox church in Chicago. It's a book on Christ, his one person in two natures, and his work of redemption in the world. The book is mainly Reardon commenting on a series of topics and texts related to the incarnation.
At several points Reardon sounds almost evangelical in his verbiage, especially when he talks about conversion. A lot of what he says about Christ's incarnation can be affirmed by Reformed evangelicals and we can benefit from it. However, there are clear departures from biblical teaching in other areas. He denies total depravity and seems to conflate or deny the double effect of the fall (legal and moral). He talks about the power of regeneration but denies the perseverance of the saints. We don't get much detail on his theory of atonement (not the focus of this volume), but the book presents a robust understanding of Christology. Salvation is union with God, with the incarnation as its focal point.
Reardon has no patience for liberal readings of the sacred text and takes many modern interpreters to task. In his interpretations he does a lot of exegetical legwork, drawing heavily on typology and redemptive-historical perspectives on the Bible, every so often leaning into allegory.
The book is edited and formatted for a popular readership (as opposed to an academic one).
At several points Reardon sounds almost evangelical in his verbiage, especially when he talks about conversion. A lot of what he says about Christ's incarnation can be affirmed by Reformed evangelicals and we can benefit from it. However, there are clear departures from biblical teaching in other areas. He denies total depravity and seems to conflate or deny the double effect of the fall (legal and moral). He talks about the power of regeneration but denies the perseverance of the saints. We don't get much detail on his theory of atonement (not the focus of this volume), but the book presents a robust understanding of Christology. Salvation is union with God, with the incarnation as its focal point.
Reardon has no patience for liberal readings of the sacred text and takes many modern interpreters to task. In his interpretations he does a lot of exegetical legwork, drawing heavily on typology and redemptive-historical perspectives on the Bible, every so often leaning into allegory.
The book is edited and formatted for a popular readership (as opposed to an academic one).
January 31, 2018
This book needs a warning label: “Not for the Theologically Unlearned”
I’m joking, of course. But if you’re not familiar with theology, you will have a hard time with Fr. Patrick’s writing style. It is dense. This is not an apologetic work, but a theological one. It is written to the Church and assumes a basic understanding and acceptance of Church history and doctrine.
This is the first volume in an anticipated three-volume exploration of the atonement (which will cover the Incarnation, the Passion/Crucifixion, and the Ascension.) He opens by explaining his starting point and addressing the insufficiency of Wesleyan developments on Anselm’s theology of redemption. While absolutely necessary to his later arguments, this was the driest part of the book.
Once the groundwork is set, Fr. Patrick digs down into the meaning of the Incarnation with regards to salvation. He does not limit himself to the Nativity but explores the whole “event” of Jesus Christ. His approach is somewhere between homily and scholarship, digging down into the texts of the Gospels and Epistles, into history and language and culture to demonstrate why the Church believes, teaches, and prays as it does.
Criticism: if you’re reading this in hard-copy format, Fr. Patrick makes use of endnotes for each chapter rather than footnotes. Despite the interruption that comes with flipping to the end of the chapter, they are worth reading. The kindle edition helpfully hyperlinks these notes such that the reader can jump directly to the note. I can’t speak for other ebook formats.
This took me nearly two months to read. If/when the next two volumes are published, I will gladly dedicate time to them as well. In summary, this is an excellent, if incredibly dense work that I’ll probably revisit many times.
I’m joking, of course. But if you’re not familiar with theology, you will have a hard time with Fr. Patrick’s writing style. It is dense. This is not an apologetic work, but a theological one. It is written to the Church and assumes a basic understanding and acceptance of Church history and doctrine.
This is the first volume in an anticipated three-volume exploration of the atonement (which will cover the Incarnation, the Passion/Crucifixion, and the Ascension.) He opens by explaining his starting point and addressing the insufficiency of Wesleyan developments on Anselm’s theology of redemption. While absolutely necessary to his later arguments, this was the driest part of the book.
Once the groundwork is set, Fr. Patrick digs down into the meaning of the Incarnation with regards to salvation. He does not limit himself to the Nativity but explores the whole “event” of Jesus Christ. His approach is somewhere between homily and scholarship, digging down into the texts of the Gospels and Epistles, into history and language and culture to demonstrate why the Church believes, teaches, and prays as it does.
Criticism: if you’re reading this in hard-copy format, Fr. Patrick makes use of endnotes for each chapter rather than footnotes. Despite the interruption that comes with flipping to the end of the chapter, they are worth reading. The kindle edition helpfully hyperlinks these notes such that the reader can jump directly to the note. I can’t speak for other ebook formats.
This took me nearly two months to read. If/when the next two volumes are published, I will gladly dedicate time to them as well. In summary, this is an excellent, if incredibly dense work that I’ll probably revisit many times.
June 12, 2024
It was really good, but not at all what I was expecting or wish it was. He starts by talking about how the atonement from the patristic era involves Jesus’ incarnation, death, and resurrection. So I thought he would discuss all three throughout the book. Instead, he only focuses on the incarnation and life of Christ. The crucifixion and resurrection get some time in the conclusion.
This was a very good Christology of the life of Christ—I learned from his biblical and historical exposition—but I felt like it was significantly lacking concerning the atonement itself (based on his own definition). 4 star content, but I give it 3 for this reason.
______
My ⭐️ rating criteria
- ⭐️: I absolutely did not like or totally disagreed with the book and would recommend that no one else read it
- ⭐️⭐️: the book was below average style or content, arguments were very weak, wouldn’t read it again, but wouldn’t beg people not to read it necessarily
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️: a fine book, some helpful information (or a decent story, for the handful of novels I read), maybe I disagreed somewhat, enjoyed it decently well
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: a very good book, information was very helpful, mostly agreed with everything or it was a strong argument even if I disagree, was above-average enjoyable to read
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: incredible book, I enjoyed it more than most other books, I want to read it again in the future, I will be telling everyone to read it for the next few weeks
April 18, 2025
As a (typical?) modern American (who was brought up in a Protestant environment), living and thinking in a "two-storey" cultural construct has been my experience, the result of which is a schism between religious life and everything else. Of course, any serious theist of any stripe recognizes that there is something fundamentally wrong with this set up: most obviously, it is doomed to fail.
My reading of this book is part of a personal project to stop living and thinking in the Raskolnikovian way advocated -- nay, even imposed -- by the modern culture of the West. (For the curious, I am reading additional texts by other authors, and I have also been listening to the Lord of Spirits podcast -- a wild and delightful foray into history, mythology, and religion that I cannot recommend highly enough. But I digress.) Fr. Reardon's work has been most helpful in making sense (by which I mean connecting what seems like random, unconnected details) to make salvation history a story that all hangs together. I am profoundly grateful for him and for that.
And now, on the off chance that he pays any mind to what people say on Goodreads about his work, I respectfully urge him to fulfill his promise to write the next book of this intended trilogy.
My reading of this book is part of a personal project to stop living and thinking in the Raskolnikovian way advocated -- nay, even imposed -- by the modern culture of the West. (For the curious, I am reading additional texts by other authors, and I have also been listening to the Lord of Spirits podcast -- a wild and delightful foray into history, mythology, and religion that I cannot recommend highly enough. But I digress.) Fr. Reardon's work has been most helpful in making sense (by which I mean connecting what seems like random, unconnected details) to make salvation history a story that all hangs together. I am profoundly grateful for him and for that.
And now, on the off chance that he pays any mind to what people say on Goodreads about his work, I respectfully urge him to fulfill his promise to write the next book of this intended trilogy.
November 28, 2021
Excellent. Slow going the first 75-100 pages, but well worth it after that. Illuminating, challenging.
September 5, 2017
The Cup runneth over (with insights)
Fr. Patrick digs deep into the wider and deeper understanding of salvation as the Orthodox Church understand it. The first few chapters dig right into the way this understanding of salvation compares and contrasts with those that diverge from it, but he does not use demeaning terminology to do so. After these chapters he unfolds this great mystery, our salvation, as it relates to various portions of divine revelation from the Holy Scriptures, and their interpretation. One might ask how these chapters relate to the subject, and the answer to this is that Fr. Patrick is drawing out and illustrating some of the at-one-ment's countless and ultimately ineffable facets. And he does so with a wealth of insights, as he is a true scholar, in a way that is understandable to his readers who are not scholars, though it most surely helps to have some biblical study and theological reading under one's belt in order to follow his train of thought. A short addendum summarizes the book.
Fr. Patrick digs deep into the wider and deeper understanding of salvation as the Orthodox Church understand it. The first few chapters dig right into the way this understanding of salvation compares and contrasts with those that diverge from it, but he does not use demeaning terminology to do so. After these chapters he unfolds this great mystery, our salvation, as it relates to various portions of divine revelation from the Holy Scriptures, and their interpretation. One might ask how these chapters relate to the subject, and the answer to this is that Fr. Patrick is drawing out and illustrating some of the at-one-ment's countless and ultimately ineffable facets. And he does so with a wealth of insights, as he is a true scholar, in a way that is understandable to his readers who are not scholars, though it most surely helps to have some biblical study and theological reading under one's belt in order to follow his train of thought. A short addendum summarizes the book.
July 3, 2021
I just finished "Reclaiming the Atonement: An Orthodox Theology of Redemption; The Incarnation, Vol 1," by Patrick Henry Reardon.
Other than an exhausably long title, this was my first Eastern Orthodox Theology. I like how he begins theology with the incarnation, rather that the Doctrine of God. Theirs is a Christocentric theology and I applaud that.
Some writers, it seems, write a paragraph in a 5 - 9 or 10 format. The main body of the paragraph will be a 5 or so on the scale of profundity and it will end with a 9 or 10 sentence. These ending sentences are so profound you begin thinking where best to tattoo them. And then there is Reardon: a constant and dependable 7. No ups or downs, just 7. Though the second to the last sentence in the book was a solid 8: "The atonement we receive in Christ is Theosis."
It was a nice book, and I will buy the next two as they go to print.
Other than an exhausably long title, this was my first Eastern Orthodox Theology. I like how he begins theology with the incarnation, rather that the Doctrine of God. Theirs is a Christocentric theology and I applaud that.
Some writers, it seems, write a paragraph in a 5 - 9 or 10 format. The main body of the paragraph will be a 5 or so on the scale of profundity and it will end with a 9 or 10 sentence. These ending sentences are so profound you begin thinking where best to tattoo them. And then there is Reardon: a constant and dependable 7. No ups or downs, just 7. Though the second to the last sentence in the book was a solid 8: "The atonement we receive in Christ is Theosis."
It was a nice book, and I will buy the next two as they go to print.
October 1, 2019
5+ stars for chs. 1-5
2.5 stars for 6-11
The first half of this book (up through the chapter 'Christ and Adam') are nothing short of brilliant. Each chapter reorients the reader on some key aspect of soteriology. Really fantastic reading.
For me, there was a dramatic shift in tone after this. The life of Christ survey that followed was much less helpful, dragged on somewhat, and at its best points was simply repeating the insights of the first half of the book. This could have been condensed a lot.
2.5 stars for 6-11
The first half of this book (up through the chapter 'Christ and Adam') are nothing short of brilliant. Each chapter reorients the reader on some key aspect of soteriology. Really fantastic reading.
For me, there was a dramatic shift in tone after this. The life of Christ survey that followed was much less helpful, dragged on somewhat, and at its best points was simply repeating the insights of the first half of the book. This could have been condensed a lot.
October 14, 2018
Starts out a bit slow, but it really gets interesting in the middle and towards the end. It is not a quick read. Fr. Reardon really goes into great detail on the meaning and importance of the incarnation.
May 2, 2019
Except for some parts of the next to last chapter, this was a pretty solid book. It's definitely worth your time, the exegesis is deep and moving despite the inevitable Baby Boomer sensitivities Fr. Patrikc brings to the table.
July 22, 2025
Not much on the atonement.
March 3, 2017
I have mixed thoughts on this book. There are several points that I haven't heard shared before, and they were supported enough to validate their truth. I may find over time that there is evidence to support them, but I can't at this time.
As the book progressed, I got more out of it. It went from 2-stars to 3. (Although I found the inclusion of the Hebrew random and sometimes without purpose) Mr. Reardon's thoughts on the incarnation, sin, and predestination are strong. Predestination is beyond my capabilities but he makes a compelling argument for his view.
As the book progressed, I got more out of it. It went from 2-stars to 3. (Although I found the inclusion of the Hebrew random and sometimes without purpose) Mr. Reardon's thoughts on the incarnation, sin, and predestination are strong. Predestination is beyond my capabilities but he makes a compelling argument for his view.
February 27, 2017
First off, this is a fantastic book. Each chapter contains numerous of what are essentially miniature Bible studies that cover numerous topics and follow, roughly, the incarnate life of Jesus. I found myself enjoying every aspect of the study from first to last, and encountered a number of interpretations and understandings that I had never heard before, but which brought new fullness and depth to the passage at hand.
Why four stars rather than five? Simply because I had a very difficult time tracking the main purpose of the book throughout. As a Protestant who struggles with the cramped and pessimistic understanding of penal substitutionary atonement, I was hoping to find a clear and concise alternate view presented here. I did learn something about an Orthodox view of atonement, but I'm afraid that if there was more, it was over my head. Nevertheless, I know that this is part one in a three-part series, so I look forward to the next two books.
Despite this criticism, I would highly recommend this book, if for no other reason than the insight that Father Reardon brings to his study of the Bible. It is absolutely brilliant.
Why four stars rather than five? Simply because I had a very difficult time tracking the main purpose of the book throughout. As a Protestant who struggles with the cramped and pessimistic understanding of penal substitutionary atonement, I was hoping to find a clear and concise alternate view presented here. I did learn something about an Orthodox view of atonement, but I'm afraid that if there was more, it was over my head. Nevertheless, I know that this is part one in a three-part series, so I look forward to the next two books.
Despite this criticism, I would highly recommend this book, if for no other reason than the insight that Father Reardon brings to his study of the Bible. It is absolutely brilliant.
January 5, 2016
Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon seeks to address a theme that, in much of non-Orthodox Christianity, has been skewed and distorted: the atonement. For Fr. Pat, it's critical that the atonement isn't narrowed to the topic of our redemption by Christ's atoning death on the cross -- though that is clearly critical -- rather "atonement" is the only properly English word that approximates the Greek "theosis" or the Latin "deification." Thus "atonement", for Fr. Pat, encompasses the entirety of salvation in Christ, which is why it must begin with the Incarnation, which is the focus of this volume.
For that reason, many may find this volume to not really be about atonement, in the way it's normally understood and discussed. One suspects that in the second volume, on the passion and the cross, these expectations will be met. But the seemingly "off-topic" nature of this volume is precisely the point: the cross and atonement can't be approached before or apart from the mystery of God-become-man, and in the teachings of the fathers, Christ's taking on flesh is itself salvific and atoning.
Fr. Pat relays early in this volume the patristic tripartite division of men from God -- being/well-being/eternal-being in St. Maximos and nature/sin/death in St. Nicolas Cabasilas -- and how these are correspondingly healed by Christ's Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection. This is the basis for structuring his work this way, and it brilliantly conveys the full scope of Orthodox salvation, and that each specific 'element' -- including Christ's life and teaching, for instance -- can't be separated from any other.
For that reason, many may find this volume to not really be about atonement, in the way it's normally understood and discussed. One suspects that in the second volume, on the passion and the cross, these expectations will be met. But the seemingly "off-topic" nature of this volume is precisely the point: the cross and atonement can't be approached before or apart from the mystery of God-become-man, and in the teachings of the fathers, Christ's taking on flesh is itself salvific and atoning.
Fr. Pat relays early in this volume the patristic tripartite division of men from God -- being/well-being/eternal-being in St. Maximos and nature/sin/death in St. Nicolas Cabasilas -- and how these are correspondingly healed by Christ's Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection. This is the basis for structuring his work this way, and it brilliantly conveys the full scope of Orthodox salvation, and that each specific 'element' -- including Christ's life and teaching, for instance -- can't be separated from any other.
February 13, 2016
As it was from the beginning
Fr Patrick demonstrates the importance of the Incarnation and full earthly life of Jesus in the redemptive plan of God. For those who think of our salvation solely in terms of the Cross (which will be covered in volume 2) our even the Resurrection (the subject of Volumes 3), this should prove eye-opening, particularly for those who are in the Eastern Church, or are willing to look beyond the bounds of post-Anselmian Western ideas.
Fr Patrick demonstrates the importance of the Incarnation and full earthly life of Jesus in the redemptive plan of God. For those who think of our salvation solely in terms of the Cross (which will be covered in volume 2) our even the Resurrection (the subject of Volumes 3), this should prove eye-opening, particularly for those who are in the Eastern Church, or are willing to look beyond the bounds of post-Anselmian Western ideas.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews