General
Jesus, the Word of God
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
“[T]he standing message of the Fathers to the Church Universal,” writes Georges Florovsky, was that “Christ Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of the Scriptures both the climax and the knot of the Bible.”[1] It…
The Philando Castile Verdict
Category: General
Tags: Current Events, Violence
I’m not going to get political. I’m just going to be honest. My heart is pounding. In anger. In sorrow. In fear (over what this might lead to). I know that, unlike the jury, we…
The Non-Violent Jesus Clothed in Violence
Category: General
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
As I’ve argued in several books (for instance, see The Myth of a Christian Nation) as well as in many posts, Jesus refused to use the power that was available to him to defend himself,…
What “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” REALLY Means?
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Tags: Animals, Creation
Topics: Creation Care
Article by Dan Kent “So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field.” Genesis 2:20 In the fog of our over-Googled, ‘Hey Siri,’ information-obsessed minds I…
How the Anabaptists Emphasized the Cross
Category: General
Tags: Anabaptists, Christus Victor, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
Because the Anabaptists have generally emphasized faith that is evidenced by works and thus on Jesus’ life as an example to be followed, it may prima facia appear that the saving work of the cross…
The Centrality of the Cross in Church History
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Cruciform Theology, Evangelicalism, Luther
Topics: Atonement and The Cross
Some readers of Crucifixion of the Warrior God may be assuming that the emphasis I’m placing on the cross is unprecedented in church history. While I will not deny that the cross-centered approached to interpreting…
Where Psychology and Theology Meet
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God's Character, Guilt, Love, Sin
Topics: Attributes and Character
Guest post by Ty Gibson The biblical narrative reveals that God bears our guilt—not merely in the penal sense that Reformed theology asserts—but in the sense that He bears our misconceptions of His character as…
Is the New Testament Ambiguous About Non-Violence?
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Non-Violence
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
One could argue, with some legitimacy, that the portrait of God in the NT is not unambiguously non-violent, the revelation of God on Calvary notwithstanding. It can’t be denied that there are violent-appearing images of…
Reviewing the Reviews: Tom Belt (Part 2)
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Tom Belt
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
In my previous post I reviewed Tom’s critical review of volume 1 of CWG, and in this post I’d like to do the same for his critical review of volume 2. As he did in his…
Reviewing the Reviews: Tom Belt (Part 1)
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Reviews, Tom Belt
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Tom Belt has written a four-part review of Crucifixion of the Warrior God on his blog An Open Orthodoxy. Parts 1 and 2 offer an overall fair and balanced summary of CWG, at least to the point that…
The Problem with Christocentrism
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Christocentrism, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
As we’ve discussed in the previous posts, there has been a growing move toward a Christocentric orientation in theology since Barth, and especially over the last fifty years. I enthusiastically applaud this trend, for I’m…
Overemphasizing Christ?
Category: General
Tags: Christocentrism, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Orthodoxy
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
In response to my work, some have argued that I tend to overemphasize Christ. In light of the claim that in Jesus we have the one and only definitive Word of God and that no…
Modern Theologians and the Centrality of Christ
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Christocentrism, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Theology
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
During the twentieth century the development of a Christocentric reading of the Scriptures—which is crucial to understanding what I argue in Crucifixion of the Warrior God—surged in the wake of Karl Barth’s publication of his…
Christus Victor Atonement and Girard’s Scapegoat Theory
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Character of God, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Love, Rene Girard, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Christus Victor view of Atonement, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Many of the major criticisms of Crucifixion of the Warrior God that have been raised since it was published four weeks ago have come from folks who advocate Rene Girard’s understanding of the atonement. A…
Early Anabaptists and the Centrality of Christ
Category: General
Tags: Anabaptists, Cruciform Theology, Menno Simons
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
In a previous post, I wrote about the Christocentric interpretation of the Scriptures espoused by the magisterial Reformers, specifically Luther and Calvin. Their hermeneutic was focused on the work and the offices of Christ, but…
The Reformers and the Centrality of Christ
Category: General
Tags: Christocentrism, Cruciform Theology, John Calvin, Martin Luther
The Christocentric nature of the Church’s hermeneutic approached a zenith in the Protestant Reformation. While Luther and Calvin rejected allegorical interpretation, in theory if not in practice, they nevertheless relied on typology and other creative…
Reviewing the Reviews: Derek Flood
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Reviews
In this second “Review of the Reviews” of Crucifixion of the Warrior God, I will discuss the three-part review of Derek Flood. In part 1 Derek provides a nice overview of the Introduction through chapter…
How the Church Fathers Read the OT
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Church Fathers, Cruciform Theology
After the completion of the New Testament, the church fathers developed theology in their increasingly Gentile post-apostolic church in such a way that many of the distinctively Jewish features of the NT’s use of the…
When God Wears Masks
Category: General
Tags: Bride of Christ, Character of God, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Attributes and Character
At various times throughout the OT we find Yahweh assuming the role of a tester, refiner, punisher and even an enemy of Israel (e.g. Jer. 9:7; Lam. 2:5; Isa 63:10). Yet, when we examine these…
Reviewing the Reviews: Rob Grayson (Faith Meets World)
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Reviews, Rob Grayson
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Well folks, Crucifixion of the Warrior God (CWG) has been out three weeks and it’s already in its third printing! That blows me away! Thank you!! We’re already getting deeply moving testimonies of how this…