Drawing on philosophical analysis and historical-critical exegesis, this study sets out to clarify the Father's will for Christ and how it relates to his death on the cross. Then, after considering the theologies of Anselm and Peter Abelard, it argues for the recovery of the early Christian category of ransom. Lombardo convincingly argues for the unity of the Trinity and the morality of the divine will in the crucifixion while raising a ridiculed metaphor of redemption back to respectability and thus beautifully inviting the church to re-appropriate its most ancient theory of redemption, the devils ransom theory.