In the Animate: Faith series, Bolz-Weber presents the session entitled, "Cross: Where God Is." In this session we are challenged to think about what the cross really symbolizes, in contrast with the human messages and explanations we may have traditionally used to understand the cross.
What is your experience with various representations of the cross? Is there a cross in the room with you right now? Do you wear a cross? How do you feel about the way the cross is used in pop culture? If you have the journal book, take a look at page 75, and answer the question about which crosses you find appealing & which you don't.
Then flip over to pages 76 & 77 in the journal and take a look at the 4 views of the cross (atonement theories) presented there. For more information on each of those interpretations (and a few others), check out the following link:
Atonement of Christ
For reference, these are the theories listed in the journal book along with their corresponding "titles" in the Atonement article (linked above) and the person most responsible for developing that theory:
- Ransom Theory - held by many of the early church leaders, further developed by Gustav Aulen, Origen of Alexandria and Gregory of Nissa
- Moral Lesson/Moral-Example/Moral-Influence - Peter Abelard
- Substitution/Scapegoat/Satisfaction/Commercial - Anselm of Canterbury
- Transformation/Recapitulation - Irenaeus
It seems to me that Bolz-Weber is more interested in making a point about the ways in which we put our human characteristics and understandings on God than in the exact correct interpretation of atonement (though the way we understand the cross changes how we view God).
Pages 78 & 79 of the journal book depict a movie projector and a screen, and we are left a blank space on the screen to write about the human images we project onto God. What "images," both positive and negative, do you see people (including yourself) projecting onto God? Bolz-Weber talks about the "Angry Daddy" image of God and the "Cigar Chomping Loan Shark" image of God. What are some others?
The facilitator guide invites us to explore further the idea of an angry God. Is God ever angry? What kinds of things do/should make God angry? What is the difference between God's anger at the injustices of the world and God's anger toward individual people? How do God's love and God's anger fit together? Can we be satisfied with the idea of God sending Jesus to the cross to mediate his anger toward humanity?
Find scriptural support for both God's wrath/anger and God's love.
What images or beliefs about God have been used by Christian people to justify particular events, beliefs and actions? How have these ideas contributed to both the positive and negative actions of Christian people over time?
Pages 80 & 81 of the journal book encourage us to think about "our own twisted roads of faith" and the "symbols and ideas that become sacred to us." We are asked to draw our own icons and symbols into the picture on page 80 and to add our own life events that have shaped our faith and our "image of God" to the road on page 81. Think about where your ideas have come from, how they have developed over time, and what it might mean to challenge some of those long-held beliefs and ideas.
For an interesting debate on roadside memorials, such as the one drawn in the journal book on page 80, check out this forum hosted by the New York Times:
Should Roadside Memorials Be Banned?
After a pretty thorough exploration of our own thoughts and beliefs, of what scripture has to say about who God is, and of the various schools of thought on atonement, consider the following scriptures in a discussion of what it really means to live a "cruciform" life?
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