It is commonplace to insist that no single atonement model will do justice to every Biblical image and theological concern. What follows is no exception. It is but a brief outline of one possible picture of how God saves through Christ, drawing on various strands of Scripture and tradition, but making no claim to exhaust all of them. As will now be apparent, the point of it is to help demonstrate that there are ways of conceiving how universal possibilities of salvation may be constituted by the particular event of Christ, without inflicting unacceptable violence on our moral, theological, and conceptual sensibilities.

As far as traditional models are concerned I have already offered a cursory indication of their chief characteristics, and their vulnerabilities. Since Gunton and Fiddes, amongst many others, have dealt with them so fully, I do not intend to add more than passing reference to them, but will concentrate instead on this attempt at another, positive, picture. In doing so, it should be clear by now what we are bound to look for: a soteriological achievement in the Christ event which includes, but goes beyond, revelation, and which creates possibilities for all time and space. I take it for granted that we should also be alert to all the traditional concerns of atonement theory on the way: that is, we require a model which also illuminates the paradox of salvation by divine grace, yet involving our cooperation.