Mark D. Baker - Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross: Contemporary Images of the Atonement

Proclaiming
the Scandal
of the Cross

Proclaiming
the Scandal
of the Cross

Contemporary Images of the Atonement

Edited by
Mark D. Baker

2006 by Mark D. Baker

Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Proclaiming the scandal of the cross : contemporary images of the atonement / edited by Mark D. Baker.

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 10: 0-8010-2742-X (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8010-2742-0 (pbk.)
1. Atonement. 2. Jesus Christ-Crucifixion. I. Baker, Mark D. (Mark David), 1957
BT265.3P76 2006
232.3dc22

2006024577

Present by Luci Shaw first appeared in Radix magazine (vol. 31, no. 1); subsequently collected in What the Light Was Like by Luci Shaw (La Porte, IN: WordFarm, 2006). Used with compliments of WordFarm, www.wordfarm.net.

Permission to reprint The Forgiveness of Sins originally included in Open toJudgement (UK title) and A Ray of Darkness (U.S. title), has been granted by Darton, Longman & Todd (1 Spencer Court, 140142 Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 4JJ; www.darton-longman-todd.co.uk; 020 8875 0155) and Cowley Publications (907 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139; www.cowley.org; 800-225-1534). Copyright 1994, 1995 Rowan Williams, all rights reserved.

Extracts from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis copyright C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1950, are reprinted by permission.

Scripture quotations labeled CEV are from the Contemporary English Version 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This book is dedicated to my daughters
Julia and Christie

Contents

Mark D. Baker

C. S. Lewis

Frederica Mathewes-Green

Chris Friesen

Debbie Blue

Dan Whitmarsh

Rowan Williams

Mark D. Baker

Richard B. Hays

Steve Taylor

Brian D. McLaren

Doug Frank

Grace Y. May

Mike McNichols

Ryan Schellenberg

Luci Shaw

Gwinyai H. Muzorewa

Curtis Chang

Steve Todd

Mark D. Baker

Mark D. Baker is associate professor of mission and theology at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, California. He was a missionary in Honduras for ten years and has authored books in Spanish and English, including Religious No More: Building Communities of Grace and Freedom.

Debbie Blue is one of the founding pastors of House of Mercy Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of Sensual Orthodoxy, a collection of sermons, and is currently at work on a book about how Christians tend to make the Bible an idol and how the Word resists.

Curtis Chang is the teaching pastor at the River Church Community, San Jose, California. He previously served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for eight years and is the author of EngagingUnbelief: A Captivating Strategy from Augustine and Aquinas.

Doug Frank is a professor at the Oregon Extension, an interdisciplinary program where students can attend to their deepest questions during a semester of intensive reading, writing, and conversation. He attends Lincoln Christian Church in a small community amid the southern Oregon mountains, where he lives and works. He is the author of Less Than Conquerors: HowEvangelicals Entered the Twentieth Century.

Chris Friesen has been serving in pastoral ministry at Lendrum Mennonite Brethren Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Richard B. Hays is the George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. He is an ordained United Methodist minister and author of a number of books including: The Moral Vision of the NewTestament: Community, Cross, New Creation and The Conversionof the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israels Scripture.

C. S. Lewis was an Anglican layman who taught literature, first at Oxford University and later at Cambridge University. He had been an atheist and converted to Christianity in his midthirties. Lewis wrote poetry, novels, and nonfiction works, and his many books include works on theology, apologetics, and literary criticism. He died in 1963.

Frederica Mathewes-Green is a columnist for Beliefnet.com, and a film reviewer for National Review Online. She regularly contributes to Christianity Today, First Things, Touchstone, and other publications. Her recent books include: The IlluminedHeart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation and FacingEast: A Pilgrims Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy. She is the Khouria (spiritual mother) of Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church near Baltimore, where her husband is the pastor.

Grace Y. May is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is currently serving as the associate pastor of the English Ministry at the First Chinese Presbyterian Church in New York Citys Chinatown. While living in the Boston area she pastored at the Chinese Christian Church of New England and previously served at the African-American Roxbury Presbyterian Church. She has contributed to The Global God: Multicultural EvangelicalViews of God and Growing Healthy Asian-American Churches.

Brian D. McLaren served for twenty-four years as the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative church near Washington, D.C. More than half of the several hundred people who attend Cedar Ridge were previously unchurched. He has written a number of books including: The Secret Message ofJesus; A Generous Orthodoxy; and the A New Kind of Christian trilogy (www.brianmclaren.net).

Mike McNichols is the pastor of Soulfarers Community, a Vineyard Church in Fullerton, California, that he and a team of friends planted in 1997. He also works with Fuller Theological Seminarys Southern California Extension program. He has worked as an elementary school teacher and principal, and also in marketing. He recently completed a doctoral projecta novel about postmodern evangelism titled, The Bartender.

Gwinyai H. Muzorewa