Abstract
The famous hymn of Philippians 2 declares that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Here and elsewhere in the New Testament, the Roman use of crucifixion is the fundamental expression of Jesus’s liberative suffering. In our modern context, the cross continues to stand at the center of the faith for many believers.
To use a familiar expression, the current issue of Interpretation “takes up” the cross by examining its importance in the Bible and contemporary culture. Of particular importance in the following essays are the compelling ways the authors put the symbolic importance of the cross in conversation with acts of racial violence.
First is the essay by Suzanne Watts Henderson, who tackles the significance of the cross in 1 Corinthians. Henderson gives careful attention to the Greek terms and intricate rhetorical strategy in the epistle and the ways in which the cross serves as a unifying principle for the fractious networks in Corinth. She also suggests how the cross can reconcile disparate peoples in our age of economic and political stratification.
Michael Gorman explores the centrality of the cross in the Johannine and Pauline literature. Through his close reading of the relevant biblical texts, Gorman demonstrates how the cross discloses God’s character, especially in terms of divine love, humility, power, wisdom, and righteousness. Gorman explains that the cross is not just a revelatory but a “saving” event: “It is intended to draw us into the life of this cruciform God as God’s children: loving, humble, powerful, wise, and just—in a cruciform way.”
With astute historical and theological analysis, S. Mark Heim examines the “aesthetic of crucifixion.” He notes the absence of depictions of the crucifixion in early Christian representations (the cross itself shows up a great deal) and carefully explores the possible reasons. Then Heim moves to more recent centuries and the ubiquity of crucifixion in the American context, through the practice of lynching. As with James Cone’s important work, Heim draws a direct parallel between Jesus’s crucifixion and the brutal executions under the banner of White supremacy. The public aspect of crucifixion/lynching in the Roman and American contexts was fundamental to these tragic practices, and Heim encourages us to see a multitude of persecuted faces when we reflect on the meaning of the cross.
Finally, Roger Gench draws upon decades of experience in urban parishes and as a community organizer in his theological exploration of the cross. During this kairos moment of racial reckoning in the United States, Gench argues that the cross encourages large portions of the American church to acknowledge our denial of systemic racism and work to overcome it. He explores New Testament passages that call for dangerous public witness, and he claims that the cross models for us a type of community engagement that can be both “relational and agitational.” Gench’s essay invites us to acknowledge that any theology of the cross is inherently political.