Search Results: cruciform
A Cross-Centered Evaluation of Responses to Tragedy
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Free Will, Predestination, Problem of Evil, Responding to Calvinism
…by, the revelation of God in the crucified Christ. I call this “the cruciform criterion.” To demonstrate how the cruciform criterion works, I’d like to evaluate each of the seven kinds of answers that Stephen Prothero received when he asked, “Where was God in Aurora?” 1) The first group of…
CRUCIFORM COMMUNION
Category: General, Guest Contributor
…All Things. We’re not here because Jesus said, “Come. Hang out and discuss.” No, my friends, we’re here because Jesus said, “Come. Follow me.” To say yes to this invitation is to set out on the greatest adventure you’ll ever know. I’m calling this adventure, Cruciform Communion. And it begins…
Final Thoughts on Copan’s Critique of Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Paul Copan
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…in violence, this wouldn’t itself undermine my cruciform hermeneutic or the Cruciform Thesis I derive from it. Here is why. The heart of my cruciform hermeneutic is the claim that all Scripture should be interpreted through the lens of the cross and with the assumption that all Scripture ultimately points…
The Cruciform Beauty of Horrific Divine Portraits
Category: Essays
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Essay, God, Jesus, New Testament, Old Testament
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…of my posts) is longer than posts are supposed to be (sorry!), what I’m going to share is said so briefly that I am aware I risk being misunderstood. I am offering in several pages one small but crucial aspect of “The Cruciform Thesis” that I spend 700 pages defending…
The Cruciform Center Part 1: How Matthew, Mark and Luke Reveal a Cruciform God
Category: Essays
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Essay, God, Jesus, Self-Sacrificial Love, Synoptic Gospels
Topics: Apologetics, Atonement and The Cross, Christology, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…“The Cruciform Center.” In Part I, which is the remainder of this blog, I’ll how the Synoptic Gospels display a cruciform center. In Part II I’ll show this with regard to the Gospel of John. Part III will demonstrate the centrality of the cross in Paul, and, finally, Part IV…
A Cruciform Magic Eye
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…half from now. Also, I’ve devoted a chapter of my upcoming book, Benefit of the Doubt, to a brief look at the cruciform hermeneutic contained in Crucifixion of the Warrior God. This book is scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2013. Til then, try the cruciform magic eye…
Cruciform Communion Meal—Second Course: Blessed
Category: General, Guest Contributor
…repeat on our Janis Joplin requests; “O Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedz Benz? O Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV? O Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?” The second course of our cruciform communion meal is to be Blessed. Certainly material possessions…
The Key to Understanding the Bible
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
…it follows that we must read Scripture with the awareness that the One who “breathed” it possesses a cruciform character and that he “breathed” it for a cruciform purpose. God didn’t begin to be Christ-like with Jesus, for if Jesus reveals who God truly is, he reveals who God has…
ReKnew Conference
…discovery: the Cruciform Hermeneutic. Having been released in his books, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Cross Vision, Greg is going to present this revolutionary way to read the Bible at the first annual Re|Knew Conference. Held at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, the conference will be an…
The Cruciform Center Part 3: How Paul’s Epistles Reveal a Cruciform God
Category: Essays
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Essay, Paul, Paul's Letters, Self-Sacrificial Love
Topics: Apologetics, Atonement and The Cross, Christology, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
As we’ve discussed, the four Gospels point to a cruciform revelation of God (click here and here for a review), but what about the most widely read writer of the New Testament? What did the Apostle Paul have to say about how the cross reveals who God is? Before turning…
Cruciform Communion Meal
Category: General, Guest Contributor
…our wounds of rejection, fear, hopelessness and unworthiness. This 4-Course Cruciform Communion meal is the holistic life that expands shalom, unity, healing, hope and love. And we begin with the first course – Taken. What does it mean to be Taken? Henri Nouwen suggests exchanging the word take –“which is…
Cross-like Love and Non-Violence
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Discipleship, Enemy Love, Kingdom Living, Love, Non-Violence, Pacifism
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
…refrain from violence cannot be considered an optional aspect of what it means to follow Jesus. Rather, as cruciform love is the most definitive distinguishing characteristic of God’s nature, so manifesting cruciform love must be considered the sine qua non feature of all who are the children of this God….
Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…more than the shocking violence of God as depicted in specific Old Testament texts, and yet nothing confirms the faith of the same people more than the cruciform love and peace of Jesus in the New Testament. Boyd’s proposal is to bring these two poles into a cruciform hermeneutic. The…
The Call To Nonviolent Discipleship
Category: General
Tags: Enemy Love, Peace
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
…2:20, cf. 5:24, 6:14), which implies that one imitates Jesus’ loving, cruciform lifestyle. Living out this cruciform love unambiguously leaves no room for the possibility, in any circumstance, of torturing and killing enemies or of responding in violent ways to anyone for any reason. To the contrary, followers of Jesus…
How the Anabaptists Emphasized the Cross
Category: General
Tags: Anabaptists, Christus Victor, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
…center of everything his followers are to be about. As is the case in the NT, the early Anabaptists generally understood that to follow the one who lived a cruciform life and died a cruciform death, one must be willing to adopt a cruciform lifestyle. [1] T. Finger, A Contemporary…
How the Bible is Trustworthy
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Cruciform Theology, Inspiration
…a God-forsaken death on the cross. This is why we can know that the Bible is trustworthy. When we trust our “God-breathed” Scripture to bear witness to the cruciform Christ, the Bible accomplishes its purpose infallibly, and therefore we can view it as trustworthy. This conclusion is based in the…
The Cruciform Center Part 2: How John’s Gospel Reveals a Cruciform God
Category: Essays
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Essay, God, Jesus, John's Gospel, Love, Self-Sacrificial Love
Topics: Apologetics, Atonement and The Cross, Christology, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…the true revelation of the true God, and if what we see in that revelation is the face of love?”[5] 4. Finally, we can discern the cruciform character of the God that Jesus reveals in Jesus’ self-sacrificial actions in John’s Gospel. The most poignant is Jesus’ washing of his disciples…
The Cruciform Center Part 4: How Revelation Reveals a Cruciform God
Category: Essays
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Essay, Jesus, Lamb of God, Non-Violence, Revelation, Self-Sacrificial Love
Topics: Apologetics, Atonement and The Cross, Christology, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…bear witness to the truth of his lamb-like character by “following the lamb wherever he goes” (14:8) — which means, refusing to defend themselves with worldly weapons, choosing instead to allow themselves to be martyred, just as Jesus did. They imitate his cruciform mode of war and they overcome “by…
God’s Love is Cruciform
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, God is Love, God's Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
…equates “following (mimētēs) God” (which could be translated as “imitating God”) with living “a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” Several verses later Paul applies this cruciform understanding of love to husbands when he tells them to “love your wives, just as…
Four Principles of the Cruciform Thesis
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…given portrait bears witness to the cross. Taken together, these four principles comprise the Cruciform Thesis. This post provides a brief introduction to these four principles. The Principle of Cruciform Accommodation This principle holds that the cross, rather than a presupposed philosophical conception of what a “perfect being” should be…