T H E O L O G Y, E T H I C S A N D PHILOSOPHY
Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross: Contemporary Images of the Atonement, Mark D. Baker (ed.), Baker, 2006 (ISBN 0-8010-2742-X), 204 pp., pb £11.99 In this follow-up to his previous effort with Joel Green, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2000), Mark Baker assembles nineteen vignettes on the cross selected for their ability to assist ministry. Baker explains that while many readers were stimulated by the first book, he received numerous enquiries related to preaching and evangelism. ‘This new volume’, he declares, ‘is my response to those questions’ (p. 14). So, whereas his previous work with Green was an argument for the contextualization of atonement theology, this book is the actual exercise, an attempt to match the variety of biblical images for atonement with humanity’s numerous needs. Each chapter begins with the editor’s introduction of both the contributor and the contribution. Baker’s introductory chapter makes it clear that this new work shares one of the key labors of the first book, namely, to supplant penal substitutionary atonement. Indeed, he spends a good bit of space countering the view, reinterpreting key Scriptural passages thought to support it, and answering critics who would disagree with his rejection of it. Adhering to this model has become something of a scandal itself. Accused of being morally reprehensible (see J. Denny Weaver, The Nonviolent Atonement [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001]; and Darby Kathleen Ray, Deceiving the Devil [Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1998]), theologically awkward (see Peter Schmiechen, Saving Power [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005]), and biblically inaccurate (see Green and Baker, Recovering the Scandal; and S. Mark Heim, Saved from Sacrifice [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006]), penal substitutionary atonement has been roundly dismissed, denounced, and denigrated. ‘This book’, says Baker, ‘will provide examples of alternatives and thus help people move beyond [the dilemma of] knowing what they do not want to do, but not knowing what to replace it with’ (p. 27). Yet, with generosity, he also
Reviews in Religion and Theology, 15:2 (2008) © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.