What is the ending to the human drama? Will all be reconciled to God in the end? Does God demand an altar, a corpse, and blood? Or, rather, is the Christian God set apart from all the other gods throughout history?

All Set Free sets out to answer some of the more difficult questions Christians today are faced with. It will challenge the Augustinian understanding of hell and the Calvinist understanding of the atonement; replacing them with a more Christ-centered understanding of both doctrines.

This book will also use the work of René Girard in order to reshape how many understand “what it means to be human.” Then and only then should we ask: “Who is God?”
 
 
Come explore what has become Matthew’s theological pilgrimage to this point. Come discover the God of peace.

Reviews

“All Set Free is a splendid contribution to an ever-growing theological conversation springing from the work of René Girard, one that is liberating the Christian tradition from its deadly optics of violence in favor of something much more in character with Jesus’s forgiving and loving Abba. Distefano makes the case for the reconciliation of all humanity with God, in a fluent, engaging style, rising often to eloquence, presenting multiple arguments to bring out the inconsistency in textual interpretations demanding eternal retributive punishment. Most of all, he gives us a positive message of a nonviolent God whose deep attraction promises to make the rote prayer of ‘your kingdom come…on earth’ become thrilling human reality. A vital book for twenty-first-century Christianity.” –Anthony W. Bartlett, Co-Founder and Contributing Theologian at Theology and Peace; Author of Virtually Christian: How Christ Changes Human Meaning and Makes Creation New –Wipf and Stock Publishers

“All Set Free, Matthew Distefano offers his readers many gifts. For those asking new and intellectually challenging questions about God, he provides a map of the terrain, including areas which other maps cordon off with ‘here there be monsters.’ For those whose religious communities have ostracized them for their questions, he offers vulnerability and companionship. This is not a lawyer’s brief, defending a position at all costs. Neither is it an exposé, claiming to unmask deficient theologies. Rather, it displays the gift of joy that comes with discovering the God of peace.” –Gregory A. Clark, Professor of Philosophy, North Park University

“In All Set Free, Matthew Distefano presents a way of reading the scriptures that will be new to many. And therein lies its value. We do not gain new insight by simply affirming what we already believe, we expand our thinking by exposing ourselves to ideas that might contradict our current believes. Using René Girard’s anthropological insights, Distefano creates a context in which to read the scriptures that exposes the god of violence as human projection, and unveils the Father of Jesus Christ as the inversion to this human projection. A very timely book indeed.”
–Andre Rabe, Founder of Always Loved Ministries and Author of Desire Found Me