Our Classes & Study Guides
We teach and train individuals and communities to embody God’s restorative justice and Jesus’ healing atonement.
Classes are taught/led by an instructor on Zoom — register on our Thinkific site!
Study Guides are self-paced versions of the Classes — watch the videos, read the materials, and do the exercises at your own pace.
Contact us, or leave us a comment below, if you’d like us to coach you to lead others in our materials, or ask other questions.
classes for Spring 2026
Would people in Hell choose Heaven if given the chance? In the popular modern show The Good Place, people can and do. In C.S. Lewis’ classic portrayal of a bus ride from Hell to Heaven, all but one do not. That may be surprising.
One reason for our surprise is that Protestants tend to think of hell as a prison cell where people want to get out, where God keeps them in because of their deeds and deservingness. Which raises many challenging questions about the character of God. But Lewis portrays hell as a state of being where God calls people towards Him, where the people say "no," because of their desires and determinations. Which makes more sense since we see people today choose self-deception and addiction, where our attempts at truth-telling and love feel like torment to them because they have become so resentful. This was actually the way the early Christians understood Hell. Lewis expresses this idea to a modern audience, with modern stories.
Instructors: Mako Nagasawa, Ian Macdonald
In the logic of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, "don't make me feel guilty" about something more I have to do because of my past sins: "Because you're the one denying the "finished work of Christ." So you're the one in the wrong."
In other words, Penal Substitutionary Atonement becomes the ultimate tool for scapegoating and gaslighting.
It can be wielded to protect abusive authority. And it has, explicitly throughout US history. And implicitly, by conditioning people now.
It's a problem of our spiritual formation.
Instructor: Mako Nagasawa
Conferences
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Our Mission
“We proclaim the restorative justice of God and the healing atonement of Jesus.”
God’s justice is restorative, not retributive.
See our Christian Restorative Justice Study Guide to learn biblical foundations and engage various modern-day issues. And check out Mako’s talk at Eastern Nazarene College.
Jesus healed human nature. For All of Us.
See our Healing Atonement Study Guide to learn about how to understand Jesus and the biblical story. And watch this video clip, below, called Jesus Retells Our Stories, from our 2019 conference.
“I now see his act on the cross as a moment of triumph.”
danielle | boston college
Our Library: Bible & Theology
We create and curate materials for Christian leaders, storytellers, artists, activists, and scholars. We summarize the Biblical story using 5 C’s. Read along with us.
Check out our Bible Studies and Messages: sermons in written and video forms, small group leader notes, tools, and papers. Also, check out our YouTube Channel or read our Blog.
Our Library: Hot Topics
We research, write about, speak on, and curate resources on the following Hot Topics.
Drill down further to find more specific issues, or search this website.
Artwork & Credits
Anástasis: Gunnar Bach Pedersen | Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons. The Anástasis fresco from Chora Church in Istanbul, Turkey. Jesus pursued all who died before him, pulling Adam and Eve from their graves, because he was victorious over sin and death on our behalf.
Traditional Ethiopian cross: Brooklyn Museum | CC.3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Syrian Christian candlestick: Fabos | Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons. Copper and silver candlestick holder made by Syrian Christian Dawud ibn Salama al-Mawsili in Syria in 1248/9 under the Muslim Ayyubid dynasty, reminding us of the Christian vocation of bearing light to others.
See this page for more on the artwork.