Cross purposes: rethinking the death of Jesus

Christian Century, March 22, 2005 by S. Mark Heim

Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us. By Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker Beacon, 288 pp., $18.00.

The Nonviolent Atonement. By Denny J. Weaver Eerdmans, 246 pp., $22.00.

The Glory of the Atonement: Biblical, Historical & Practical Perspectives. Edited by Roger R. Nicole, Charles E. Hill and Frank A. James. InterVarsity, 500 pp., $29.00.

Power in the Blood? The Cross in the African American Experience. By JoAnne Marie Terrell. Orbis, 187 pp., $20.00.

King, Priest and Prophet: A Trinitarian Theology of Atonement. By Robert Sherman. T&T Clark, 304 pp., $36.95.

Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus. By Stephen J. Patterson. Fortress, 161 pp., $18.00.

Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition. By Hans Boersma. Baker, 288 pp., $29.99.

IS THE STORY of Jesus mainly about his death and a life that leads to it, or is the story of Jesus mainly about his life and a death that flows from it? On one view, it hardly matters: these are just two ways of looking at the same thing. On a more combative view, the difference is as great as night and day. Does the cross belong on the sleeves (and hearts) of Christians, as the glorious core of their faith, or does it belong in the repair shop, in need of drastic repairs, the primary Christian embarrassment for believers and an offense to outsiders?

The disagreement is not over Jesus' death as a fact. Both sides largely agree about the reality and circumstances of the crucifixion and, for that matter, of the resurrection. At least, the disagreement within one side on these issues is as great as the disagreement between the sides.

No, the conflict revolves around a theology of the cross, a theology that says Jesus' death is the supreme saving act, and that the equation of guilt, punishment and grace worked out through the execution of the innocent, divine victim in place of a rightly condemned humanity provides the essential sum of Christianity itself.

This theology is composed of many elements in scripture and tradition--references to Jesus' death as a sacrifice, ideas of redemptive suffering, and a deep tradition of eucharistic remembrance that Jesus died "for us." These elements appear in all branches and eras of Christian tradition. But the organization of them into a complete substitutionary view of the atonement is much less universal. Such a view has never been prominent in the Eastern Christian church, and it was not the dominant view in the Western church for the first half of its history.

Many think the rise of atonement theology represented a terrible wrong turn, plunging Christian spirituality into a toxic brew of idealized masochism, authorized violence and social domination. In Proverbs of Ashes, two feminist theologians make this case. They make it not with heated rhetoric but through a narrative intertwining their searing personal histories of abuse, depression, ministry and loss with reflections on where Christian beliefs have abetted the destructive forces in their lives and where they have been part of the healing.

Unlike many first-person approaches to controversial issues, the book's net effect is neither bitter nor dogmatic. The authors' honesty and vulnerability invite a genuine dialogue. Anyone who thinks there isn't a problem should start here.

If Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker make a case against atonement in experience, Denny Weaver complements it with a case drawn from history. The Nonviolent Atonement is a full-scale attack on St. Anselm's and others' substitution theologies of the cross," and it also spells out an alternative, which he calls "narrative Christus Victor." The saving work of Jesus is his struggle against and victory over the structural evil powers of this world. Weaver adds "narrative" to the phrase Christus Victor because some might focus this battle entirely on Jesus' death. Weaver's point is that the saving work is one continuous story, in which the cross is just one moment.

A Mennonite, Weaver associates the elevation of the cross with the fall of the church. The rise of a theology of God's redemptive use of punishment goes hand in hand with a church that learns to endorse the military force of a Christian state. His book also includes an impressive review of recent treatments of this topic by feminist, womanist and African-American theologians, perspectives that he weaves effectively into his argument.

IF THESE TWO books call for a root-and-branch excision of atonement, The Glory of the Atonement is a collection whose writers bring a "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater" caution. The former writers see the idea of atonement itself as an error. The latter collection see destructive effects sometimes flowing from faulty theological expressions. On the doctrine itself, the introduction quotes Emil Brunner: it is "the Christian religion itself; it is the main point; it is not something alongside of the center; it is the substance and kernel, not the husk."