How might humanity experience ultimate reality as intimately related to us, as liberating us individually and corporately from disorder, and as empowering our personal self-integration? With this question in mind, this work reexamines the images and concepts of Christian doctrinal tradition which--under the rubric of the "doctrine of the atonement"--have historically promoted this experience. The extended constructive essay which concludes the book makes extensive and foundational--though not uncritical--use of Whiteheadian process-relational thought to provide new ontological grounding to Christian images and (...) concepts of atonement. (shrink)