The Wisdom and Power of the Cross

Abstract

This volume is the fifth in a series dealing with the passion and death of Christ—symbolized by “the cross”—in Christian theology and the arts. It examines the way the Passion of Christ has been thought about by theologians and portrayed by artists and musicians in the modern and contemporary world. It examines the traditional approaches to soteriology in contrast to revisionist theologies that take up the challenge of understanding the meaning of the cross in the light of critical historical studies and modern science. These provide new understandings of traditional concepts like “original sin,” “redemption,” and “substitution.” A new Christian spirituality of “the cross” is suggested by the insights of feminist and liberation theologies, which provide an existential interpretation and a need to combat human suffering rather than accepting it as a “cross” willed by God. Contemporary art and music reveal both the lasting power of traditional images of the Passion and new possibilities of expression.