McKnight points out that it is quite ironic that the body of Christ is ardently divided over the definition of atonement—a concept that is relational and unifying by definition. Research on the need for cognitive closure helps to explain why our church group, when trying to make sense of a difficult and mysterious concept such as atonement, might cling to one metaphor of atonement and resist acceptance of other metaphors. To acknowledge that other useful metaphors might exist is to risk opening what we have already cognitively closed.
