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Searching for love in history's most famous execution.
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We can get so used to the image of a cross in church that we
forget that we worship at the foot of an instrument of violent execution.
If
you’ve been in churches for many years, no doubt you’ve heard guilt-inducing
sermons of shame and guilt regarding the cross. Perhaps you’ve heard that God
the Father demanded that His only Son suffer a cruel, gruesome death to appease
His wrath at your irredeemably sinful nature.
Too often we roll out of the loving
Christmas message of “peace on Earth” to suddenly find ourselves as “sinners in
the hands of an angry God.”
Some long-time believers may be surprised to
discover that the theology of “penal substitutionary atonement”—Christ punished
in your place—is a rather recent construction, and that other understandings of
the work of the cross exist.
In Did God Kill Jesus?,
author Tony Jones wants to restore the cross as primarily a symbol of God’s
overwhelming love for us. He expounds on different models for understanding the
work of the cross, with the goal of helping the reader to develop a cross-based
faith that makes sense. How we understand the cross reflects directly what kind
of God we worship.
Jones offers a positive, loving, inclusive interpretation of
the faith that is both challenging and inspiring. |
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Who is Tony Jones?
Tony Jones (M.Div., Ph.D.) is a theologian, professor, and writer.
Currently, he serves as
theologian-in-residence at Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, and teaches
at Fuller Theological Seminary and United Theological Seminary of the
Twin Cities. Tony has written a dozen books on Christian ministry,
spirituality, prayer, and new church movements. He lives in Minnesota
with his wife, kids, and dogs.
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Book Discussion Group
Tom Cox will be facilitating discussion of this book over six weeks from April 6-May 18. You'll need to read up to page 33 before the first session.
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This smart, readable, and ultimately beautiful book allows this generation to reclaim the cross as the place of God's deepest love rather than the place of our deepest shame. Jones unlocks the chains of fear and shame that bind so much of Christianity and offers us, instead, freedom. I am so grateful for this important book. I will honestly be referring people to it for decades to come. It's that important. - Nadia Bolz-Weber
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