What do you think?
Rate this book
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross: Contemporary Images of the Atonement
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross explores the need for contextualized atonement theology, offering creative examples of how the cross can be proclaimed today in culturally relevant and transformative ways. Mark Baker brings together presentations of the atonement given in a variety of contexts, from Africa to suburban Los Angeles, from junior high Sunday school classes to coffee shops. The images and metaphors in these presentations have been developed by pastors, writers, and theologians, including Richard B. Hays, C. S. Lewis, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Brian D. McLaren, Luci Shaw, Rowan Williams, and many more, who are actively working out just how to make this life-transforming proclamation. These contributors reveal that Christians should embrace a whole constellation of perspectives on the atonement, all mutually reinforcing, because the language of the atonement must at once be metaphorical, pastoral, and salvific.
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2006
9 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 13, 2020
"A helpful resources despite serious omissions."
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross brings the reader word and prose "images" of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The book features eighteen authors all told with a tailpiece, a headpiece and one in the center by editor Mark D. Baker. Contributors include big names like C.S. Lewis and Rowan Williams though sadly, only a scant four women. Brief bios in the front of the book show they're mostly Western Protestants, mostly pastors from English-speaking countries. Sadly surprising is the apparent total omission of anyone from a Lutheran or a Roman Catholic perspective, although I especially appreciate the inclusion of Frederica Mathewes Green, who writes from the Antiochian Orthodox tradition as she clearly and concisely defines the Christus Victor atonement model that remains most prominent in the Eastern Churches.
I found this book to be a helpful resource that I read very quickly. Despite my background, I've been known to get seriously bogged down in densely-written theological tomes - not to say those weren't written well - but this wasn't one of those. I especially like the real-life stories that contextualize each concept and the way each author nuances their atonement concepts a little differently. Each discrete chapter opens with introductory explanations and concludes with a descriptive wrapup of the material just presented.
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross goes beyond the generally popularly acknowledged models of the atonement of Jesus Christ that typically nclude conflict/victory, legal penal satisfaction, and moral influence/example. In his intro, Mark Baker observes [page 31] "...for centuries, Christians preached and taught the message of Christianity without the gospel leading them to the inescapable conclusion of penal satisfaction." And, "It is noteworthy that Orthodox Christians still read their Bibles without finding this theory."
I recommend this book as a teaching and discussion resource; it could be helpful as part of the preaching enterprise, as well. But not including a single currently practicing Roman Catholic troubles me and I particularly consider the omission of a contributor writing from a Lutheran perspective both glaring and puzzling, especially given how central the theology of Martin Luther has been for the Church in the West and given that most of his theology was very specifically "Theology of the Cross." In fact, for Luther, the cross of Calvary formed a Weltanschauung, an all-encompassing worldview.
In the Heidelberg Disputation [1518] Luther tells us in article 19: "That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things that have actually happened;" and in article 20: "He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross."
Originally reviewed in February 2010
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross brings the reader word and prose "images" of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The book features eighteen authors all told with a tailpiece, a headpiece and one in the center by editor Mark D. Baker. Contributors include big names like C.S. Lewis and Rowan Williams though sadly, only a scant four women. Brief bios in the front of the book show they're mostly Western Protestants, mostly pastors from English-speaking countries. Sadly surprising is the apparent total omission of anyone from a Lutheran or a Roman Catholic perspective, although I especially appreciate the inclusion of Frederica Mathewes Green, who writes from the Antiochian Orthodox tradition as she clearly and concisely defines the Christus Victor atonement model that remains most prominent in the Eastern Churches.
I found this book to be a helpful resource that I read very quickly. Despite my background, I've been known to get seriously bogged down in densely-written theological tomes - not to say those weren't written well - but this wasn't one of those. I especially like the real-life stories that contextualize each concept and the way each author nuances their atonement concepts a little differently. Each discrete chapter opens with introductory explanations and concludes with a descriptive wrapup of the material just presented.
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross goes beyond the generally popularly acknowledged models of the atonement of Jesus Christ that typically nclude conflict/victory, legal penal satisfaction, and moral influence/example. In his intro, Mark Baker observes [page 31] "...for centuries, Christians preached and taught the message of Christianity without the gospel leading them to the inescapable conclusion of penal satisfaction." And, "It is noteworthy that Orthodox Christians still read their Bibles without finding this theory."
I recommend this book as a teaching and discussion resource; it could be helpful as part of the preaching enterprise, as well. But not including a single currently practicing Roman Catholic troubles me and I particularly consider the omission of a contributor writing from a Lutheran perspective both glaring and puzzling, especially given how central the theology of Martin Luther has been for the Church in the West and given that most of his theology was very specifically "Theology of the Cross." In fact, for Luther, the cross of Calvary formed a Weltanschauung, an all-encompassing worldview.
In the Heidelberg Disputation [1518] Luther tells us in article 19: "That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things that have actually happened;" and in article 20: "He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross."
Originally reviewed in February 2010
April 12, 2017
This book is a selection of essays, sermons, stories, and extracts, that aim to illustrate the atonement specifically in ways not relating to penal substitution. While I have no problem with this as such, I did have various problems with the way it played out in practice. While its stated purpose was not to get rid of penal substitution as to present alternatives, there were in fact some pretty hostile undertones, the ire of which was largely misplaced. It seemed to suppose that the only arguments for penal substitution from the Bible rely on a few New Testament proof texts. This is a gross misrepresentation - it in fact stems primarily from an understanding of how the crucifixion fulfils the Law. And this was the main thing that worried me about this book's theology - the undercurrent of antinomianism and the sidelining of the Old Testament Law. The only references to it seem to be either to represent it as just another set of pre-modern rituals (I can't help but baulk at this) or as a set of rules designed by God to help people get on. While this is certainly part of the purpose of the Law, it misses an enormous part of its purpose - I would suggest that seeing the Law only through this lens is comparable to seeing the atonement only through the lens of penal substitution. The Law is rather a complete guideline for how God's people were meant to relate to him. Understood in this light, penal substitution seems a whole lot more reasonable.
That was my main quibble. Many of the contributions to this book were excellent in their own right.
[One last thing - I got my copy of this second hand. I don't know where it had been, but it had and has a funny smell coming off it to which I seem to be allergic as it kept making me sneeze. This was not, I admit, inclining me to view it favourably.]
That was my main quibble. Many of the contributions to this book were excellent in their own right.
[One last thing - I got my copy of this second hand. I don't know where it had been, but it had and has a funny smell coming off it to which I seem to be allergic as it kept making me sneeze. This was not, I admit, inclining me to view it favourably.]
April 18, 2016
Great book that explores the different explanations of the cross. The events leading up to and including the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are like a diamond in that you turn it and see different angles with completely different aspects but it is all the same diamond. I decided to read this book because I needed to hear other ideas of the cross other than the currently popular penal satisfaction.
April 9, 2012
Powerful stories about what Jesus did on the cross, what the cross symbolizes, how God is perceived. Please read this book if you want something more than penal substitution, which some may profess to be un-Biblical in its entirety.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews