should not think here simply of personal salvation, as we know it today, but as the act of God in history to ransom Israel from Rome's might and set them free to be the people of God as they are meant to be. If this vision of Zechariah, or Mary for that matter, has anything to do with atonement—and I can’t see how it cannot have that as its central theme— then atonement is all about creating a society in which God's will is actualized— on planet earth, in the here and now of Mary and Zechariah.
