Mike's musings

Fog

Lots of fog on the way to work today, and very cold (-2 degrees Celsius): the first ice on the roads today, on a little road across to Brinkley. It's the standard place for it, so I wasn't surprised. The fog's come down tonight, as well, so the drive home will be interesting (yes, I'm writing this at work today).

Never thought it would happen, but I ended up explaining some of the theories of atonement to somebody today! A friend who works in the company next door, had asked me this morning what I'd done over the weekend, and I'd told her that I'd spent lots of time learning about theories of atonement. She asked me what atonement is, and it went from there. We spent 10 minutes or so chatting, and I she said that for her, the most attractive model is the exemplar one (well, she said what she found most likely/attractive, and we agreed that it was that), maybe with a bit of solidarity thrown in. As she's agnostic, that doesn't surprise me. We also agreed a solidarity/exemplar mix is good management practice: you motivate people by showing them what you want done (exemplar), and also mucking in and showing that you're not afraid to do your bit, even when it gets hard (solidarity). This is clearly a gross simplification of two sophisticated theories of atonement, but it hit a chord with someone who was interested, and allowed her to think about an important theological issue in a way that made sense for her.