RECOVERING THE SCANDAL OF THE CROSS
Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts
By Joel B. Green and Mark D. Baker. Paternoster. 232 pages. £14.99
ISBN 1 84227 246 2
Joel Green and Mark Baker's book Recovering the Scandal of the Cross was first published in the US four years ago. It perhaps hasn't yet been so widely read over here, but its influence is beginning to filter through. It is one of the books, for example, cited as 'Further Reading' at the end of Steve Chalke's The Lost Message of Jesus.
It would be hard to object to Green and Baker's stated aim, which is to understand the cross in a way that is true to the New Testament witness and applicable to different cultural contexts. However, it becomes apparent from the very first chapter that the main thrust of the book is an attack on penal substitution and the claim that it is 'the one correct approach to explaining the saving significance of the cross'. What they defend instead is a view of atonement theology as a 'living tradition', a creative 'craft' whereby models of the atonement are tailor-made to suit the needs and contexts of contemporary cross-cultural mission.
