Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross explores the need for contextualized atonement theology, offering creative examples of how the cross can be proclaimed today in culturally relevant and transformative ways. Mark Baker brings together presentations of the atonement given in a variety of contexts, from Africa to suburban Los Angeles, from junior high Sunday school classes to coffee shops. The images and metaphors in these presentations have been developed by pastors, writers, and theologians, including Richard B. Hays, C. S. Lewis, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Brian D. McLaren, Luci Shaw, Rowan Williams, and many more, who are actively working out just how to make this life-transforming proclamation. These contributors reveal that Christians should embrace a whole constellation of perspectives on the atonement, all mutually reinforcing, because the language of the atonement must at once be metaphorical, pastoral, and salvific.

Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross: Contemporary Images of the Atonement

Baker, Mark D.

Religion & Spirituality

Baker Academic

The cross is the defining symbol of the Christian faith. Yet the Roman cross was first and foremost an instrument of cruel, shameful and violent execution. Early Christians quickly recognized the atoning significance of the cross of Christ, and it resonated deeply with their experience of salvation. But the cross remained a blessing framed by scandal, an epochal and yet mysterious event irreducible to a single formulation. As Joel Green and Mark Baker demonstrate, the New Testament displays a rich array of interpretations of the cross. These were shaped by the church in mission as it rooted the saving story of a scandalous cross in the language of everyday realities and relationships. But for many Christians today, not only has the true scandal of the cross been obscured, the variety of its New Testament interpretations have been reduced to subpoints in a single, controlling view of the atonement. Tragically, the way in which the atonement is frequently and popularly expressed now poses a new scandal, one that is foreign to the New Testament and poses needless obstacles to twenty-first century peoples and cultures. At the heart of this book is a challenge for us to view afresh the variety of contextual understandings of the death of Christ in the New Testament and to reconsider how we can faithfully communicate with fresh models the atoning significance of the cross for specific contexts today. The authors explore how the atonement has been understood within a variety of contemporary contexts--both Western and non-Western--and show how we can enter into the thoroughly Christian mission of restating the saving scandal of the cross in our multicultural world of the twenty-first century.

Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament & Contemporary Contexts

Green, Joel B.

IVP Academic

Too many Christians are "religious" - their faith is more a human endeavor than a response to God's loving initiative. Such religion assumes that our value comes not from God but from what we do. It absorbs principles and postulates from the surrounding society, leading to further misconceptions about God and our relation to our Creator. All this hinders people from experiencing vibrant Christian community, where they could freely love and be loved. 
Mark Baker suggests that just as car companies test automobiles under severe conditions to uncover weaknesses, North American Christians may detect fallacies in their "gospel" by examining how it plays out under the challenges of poverty, injustice, and entrenched religiosity. Baker's test case is drawn from his ten-year missionary experience in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at churches born out of North American mission work. 
Baker observes Honduran church life, draws parallels to the dangers of religion in the North American church and mines from Galatians exciting possibilities of robust Christian grace and freedom. The result is a bracing and refreshing approach to Christian community for laypersons, pastors, missionaries, and mission strategists.

Religious No More: Building Communities of Grace & Freedom

Intervarsity Pr

For the first-century Roman world the cross was first and foremost an instrument of shameful and violent execution. But early Christians, who had seen their world upended by the atoning power of the cross of Christ, came to view it in an entirely different light. Deeply scandalous, it was paradoxically glorious. For the cross of Christ marked the epochal saving event in God's dealings with Israel and the world. And its meaning could not be fathomed or encircled by a single image or formulation. Since its publication in 2000, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross has initiated among evangelicals a new conversation about the nature of the atonement and how it should be expressed in the varied and global contexts of today. In this second edition Green and Baker have clarified and enlarged their argument in a way that will continue to provoke thought and conversation on this critical topic.

Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts

Many a Westerner has had a cross-cultural experience of honor and shame. First there are those stuttering moments in the new social landscape. Then after missed cues and social bruises comes the revelation that this culture―indeed much of the world―runs on an honor-shame operating system. When Western individualism and its introspective conscience fails to engage cultural gears, how can we shift and navigate this alternate code? And might we even learn to see and speak the gospel differently if we did? In Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures Jayson Georges and Mark Baker help us decode the cultural script of honor and shame. What's more, they assist us in reading the Bible anew through the lens of honor and shame, often with startling turns. And they offer thoughtful and practical guidance in ministry within honor-shame contexts. Apt stories, illuminating insights and ministry-tested wisdom complete this well-rounded guide to Christian ministry in honor-shame cultures.

Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures: Biblical Foundations and Practical Essentials

Georges, Jayson

Review\n"Mark Baker's Centered-Set Church is a life-giving exposition of a life-transforming concept. With each story, he draws us in to another way of being the people of Jesus in the world. We leave judgmentalism behind, we lose old ways of drawing lines, and Hiebert's concept comes alive. A must-read for us who are called to lead churches to engage this world with the good news of Jesus Christ." -- David Fitch, Northern Seminary, author of Faithful Presence\n"When it comes to discerning what it looks like to live a Jesus-centered faith in a Jesus-centered community, it isn't an overstatement to say that Mark Baker's teaching and modeling of 'centered-set' Christianity completely revolutionized my vision of Christian formation within the local church. For years I'd hoped he'd put words on a page that could guide congregations―beyond the reach of his seminary classrooms―and finally . . . it is here! Centered-Set Church is a must-read for any church desiring to authentically follow Jesus without the trappings of religiosity or relativism. While many churches in North America have a track record for focusing on rule-based boundaries, this book paints a vision of a church transformed by a simple yet costly idea: What if Jesus were truly the center of a church's values, programs, community life, and discipleship? Without a doubt, that church's witness would be absolutely transformed. Church leaders and Christian readers, put this book at the top of your stack!" -- Kurt Willems, pastor and author of Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems Our Pain\n"Centered-Set Church is an immensely practical book brimming with eloquent theology and a lively hope in the loving spirit of Christ active in the world. It's not often that you find the practical and the lyrically beautiful so entwined. Baker embodies the traits he suggests the church needs to embrace to maintain a centered approach. Though clear about his vision, he presents his case with humility and vulnerability―something you don't often find in church manuals. I wish I'd had this book when I planted a church years ago. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in Christian community―church planters, lay leaders, and anyone who longs to glimpse the gracious love at the center of Christian faith." -- Debbie Blue, pastor of House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, and author of Sensual Orthodoxy\n"How can we hold beliefs and values without falling into gracelessness, self-righteousness, and conditional acceptance of others? In this excellent resource for churches, Mark Baker offers a practical alternative to help your community of faith keep firm convictions without drawing lines that promote polarization and judgmental attitudes. Highly recommended!" -- César García, general secretary, Mennonite World Conference\n"I can still vividly recall the moment of gracious encounter with the loving God who provides a covering from shame. That moment was unexpectedly in the middle of one of Mark Baker's lectures in his Discipleship and Ethics course. Dr. Baker provides helpful examples, reflective questions, and stirring testimonies from ministry leaders engaging in the work of moving from bounded or fuzzy toward restorative and centered systems. To say that the insights from the course and this book are transformative is to only begin to tell the story of beauty, love, and truth in this material. I highly recommend this book for those seeking to lead and be led in the way of Jesus, toward Jesus, and with one another." -- Noemi Vega Quiñones, coauthor of Hermanas: Growing Our Identity and Increasing Our Influence\n"Few concepts have had as much impact on my own work as a minister and theology lecturer as Mark Baker's explanation of the church in terms of bounded, fuzzy, and centered sets. I've been benefiting from Mark's work on this topic for years. Now with Centered-Set Church, we have Mark's full treatment of a paradigm that will surely shift the conversation and the church into a spac

Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community Without Judgmentalism

Religious No More: Building Communities of Grace and Freedom

Christian Books & Bibles

Churches & Church Leadership

Wipf & Stock Publishers

Freedom From Religiosity

Kindred Productions

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