I wrote it because the cross is familiar enough to be repeated and strange enough to be misunderstood. Many people inherited a diagram before they were allowed to encounter the event. Others rejected the diagram and assumed they had rejected the cross itself. I wanted to remain with Scripture long enough to ask what human beings did, what Jesus freely gave, what God revealed, and what God accomplished.
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Reading Jesus Without Shortcuts · Volume 3 of 5 · Catalog 43192
The Cross
What Actually Happened There
In The Cross, Will Bourne asks what actually happened when Jesus was crucified.
Bourne Again Living Library · Catalog 43192
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Reading Jesus Without Shortcuts, Volume 3 of 5. It also belongs to the Reading Jesus Without Shortcuts pathway.
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In The Cross, Will Bourne asks what actually happened when Jesus was crucified. Reading the passion narratives, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, 2 Corinthians 5, and the New Testament’s many atonement images, he holds human responsibility and divine saving purpose together. The result refuses both violent caricatures of God and reductions of the cross to inspiration, offering a pastoral account of sacrifice, substitution, victory, forgiveness, reconciliation, power, and resurrection.
Questions this book helps you face
- Does Christianity glorify violence by placing a crucifixion at its center?
- How important is Jesus’ agency to your theology of the cross?
- Why is a Trinitarian account of the cross necessary?
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READER PATHWAY P04
Reading Jesus Without Shortcuts
Slow down around the central claims of Jesus and let the Gospel witness speak before inherited conclusions take over.
Explore this pathway →Continue to the next volume · CATALOG 43193Resurrection
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View this book →ORIENTATION BOOK · CATALOG 43087Bourne Again: Awake. Align. Act.
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View this book →WRITTEN INTERVIEW · CATALOG 43192The conversation behind The Cross
Will Bourne discusses why this book was written, the questions it addresses, and the formation he hopes it serves.
Read the Written Interview →ARTICLE MOVEMENTScripture, Mystery, and Difficult Questions
Approaches difficult texts, Christ-centered reading, uncertainty, discernment, mystery, spiritual injury, and faithful questions with context, humility, accountable authority, and responsible care.
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The conversation approaches the cross slowly. It is familiar enough to appear in churches, prayers, and Christian language, yet strange enough that many people have inherited an explanation before they were allowed to remain with the event itself.
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