Among living Lutheran theologians writing primarily in English, no other author has more command of the atonement than Jack D. Kilcrease.

In the foreword to this volume, The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, says "Dr. Kilcrease is a reliable, clear and faithful guide." With the abiding confession that is in accordance with Scripture and the Lutheran confessions in the 1580 Book of Concord, Harrison says Kilcrease "patiently and calmly takes the reader through the labyrinth of the history of the dogmas of atonement, justification, including numerous insufficient approaches recognized by Luther and Gerhard, philosophical influences driving Kant and Schleiermacher, affecting von Hoffmann and the 'Radical Lutherans' of our time. ... This collection is essential for anyone attempting to decipher the issues swirling about this central dogma of the justification of the sinner before God and desiring to be faithful to the confessionally Lutheran witness to the truth."

This volume presents an anthology of Kilcrease’s writings on atonement including:

• Martin Luther’s Unique Contribution to Western Atonement Theology
• The Centrality of Substitutionary Atonement
• Johann Gerhard, the Socinians, and Modern Rejections of Substitutionary Atonement
• Heilsgeschicte and Atonement in the Theology of Johannes Christian Konrad von Hofmann (1810-1877): An Exposition and Critique
• Gerhard Forde: A Short Appreciation and Critique
• Gerhard Forde's Theology of Atonement and Justification: A Confessional Lutheran Response
• Gerhard Forde’s Doctrine of the Law: A Confessional Lutheran Critique
• Justification or Atonement? A Brief Comment on the Methodology of the Central Dogma Theory
• What Radical Lutherans Can Learn from Waltherian Lutherans
• Atonement in Franz Pieper: Context and Confession

Added is a summary and commentary on Kilcrease’s The Doctrine of the Atonement from Luther to Forde by Rev. Dennis E. McFadden.