Most churchgoing people are “Jews” on Sunday morning and “Greeks” the rest of the time. Religious people want visionary experiences and spiritual uplift; secular people want proofs, arguments, demonstrations, philosophy, science. The striking fact is that neither one of these groups wants to hear about the cross. It is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1:23). The cross is not a suitable object of devotion for religious people, and the claims made for it are too extreme to be acceptable to secular people. It is the paradox of present-day American culture to be both religious
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