Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross
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Overview
The cross has long been not only a scandal but also a profound paradox: filled with saving significance and power, it is at the same time a sobering tragedy. In Saved from Sacrifice theologian Mark Heim takes on this paradox, asserting that the cross must be understood against the whole history of human scapegoating violence.
In order to highlight the dimensions of his argument, Heim carefully and critically draws on the groundbreaking work of French theorist and biblical scholar René Girard. Yet Heim goes beyond Girard to develop a comprehensive theology of the atonement and the cross through his fresh readings of well-known biblical passages and his exploration of the place of the victim.
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- States that the cross has long been not only a scandal but also a profound paradox.
- Asserts that the cross must be understood against the whole history of human scapegoating violence.
- Goes beyond Girard to develop a comprehensive theology of the atonement and the cross.
- Preface
- Introduction: A Stumble to Start With
- 1. Atonement on Trial
- PART ONE: Things Hidden from the Foundation of the World
- The Cross No One Sees
- 2. The Cross No One Sees: Invisible Scapegoats
- 3. The Voice of Job: Sacrifice Revealed and Contested
- PART TWO: Visible Victim
- The Cross We Can’t Forget
- 4. The Paradox of the Passion: Saved by What Shouldn’t Happen
- 5. Sacrifice to End Sacrifice: Satan’s House Divided
- 6. The Sign of Jonah and Susanna: Innocent Blood and False Accusers
- 7. God’s Wisdom and Two Mistakes: The Struggle of Historical Christianity
- PART THREE: In Remembrance of Me
- The Cross That Faith Keeps Empty
- 8. Substitute for Sacrifice: Living with an Empty Cross
- 9. The Bad News about Revelation: Two Kinds of Apocalypse
- 10. Saved from Sacrifice: Renewing the Theology of the Cross
- Bibliography
- Index
Drawing extensively from Ren? Girard’s analysis of the scapegoat mechanism, Mark Heim has written a not-to-be-missed work on the unmasking of sacrificial violence by the biblical witness. He offers stunning interpretations of Old and New Testament texts as he marshals his argument that the event of the cross narrated in the Gospels is universally significant not because it repeats the deadly cycle of sacrifice present in all societies and in all religious ritual and myth but because it reverses this cycle and rescues us from the practice of scapegoating sacrifice and the violence it both hides and perpetuates. This is a theology of the cross in a bold new key.
—Daniel L. Migliore, Princeton Theological Seminary
Saved from Sacrifice provides what, for example, Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ is disappointingly unaware of — a theology of the cross. Heim saves us from having to think of God as a cruel sacrifice-demander; saves us from the terrible consequences of thinking that God wanted his Son to suffer terribly; reminds us that the passion is not what God the Father did to Jesus but is what we did to Jesus; and saves us from the terrible ‘theological’ consequences of thinking that God actually wanted, willed, or demanded the violent things that were done to Jesus. If, for example, God does violence in order to achieve a good end (our salvation), should not we, in imitation of God, also be willing to use violence to achieve what we see as good? Saved from Sacrifice saves us from such a profoundly distorted view of God and Christianity, and it challenges us to refocus our attention on a more authentically Christian view of the transforming mystery of the cross of Christ. This is one of the most important and profoundly needed books to appear in our day. Its unveiling of the inherently un-Christian nature of all violence is desperately needed in our contemporary world.
—Robert J. Daly, S.J., Boston College
Sacrifice. It’s the most stirringly profound and most cruelly misunderstood word in our spiritual lexicon. S. Mark Heim has performed a great service in providing a lucid, learned, ecumenical appraisal of what sacrifice has meant and continues to mean today. A Girardian who truly appreciates the atonement theologies of the past, Heim enables Christian readers of all viewpoints to renew their humbled awareness of the cross as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
—Carol Zaleski, Smith College