Cruciform Scripture
Cross, Participation, and Mission
Edited by Christopher W. Skinner, Nijay K. Gupta, Andy Johnson, Drew J. Strait ISBN 9780802876379 Binding Trade Paper Publisher WM B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Publication Date January 05, 2021 Size 152 x 229 mmWhat does it mean to participate in the cruciform Lord Jesus Christ so that our life together becomes a living exegesis of the gospel?
Michael Gorman has been tremendously influential in exploring this question within the New Testament, particularly in the letters of Paul, the Gospel of John, and the book of Revelation. His 2001 book Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross inspired a generation of scholars and was the first in a trilogy of New Testament theology devoted to exploring the role of the cross, participation in Christ, and becoming the gospel in mission. Here, an assemblage of some of the best and brightest current New Testament exegetes honor Gorman’s work with contributions of their own, each of which further explores these three critical themes in various passages of the New Testament.
Cruciform Scripture is more than a tribute to a giant of biblical scholarship. Its contributors (including N. T. Wright, Sylvia Keesmaat, and Richard Hays) are masters in their own right who offer incisive interpretations of essential themes of New Testament theology and the core concerns of Christian life in community. As they reason together in this volume, they amplify one another’s voices as well as Gorman’s, modeling a way that careful reflection on Paul’s determination to “know nothing . . . except Jesus Christ and him crucified” can engender fruitful insights on the nature of discipleship.
Contributors
Ben C. Blackwell, Sherri Brown, Frank E. Dicken, Dennis R. Edwards, Rebekah Eklund, Dean Flemming, Patricia Fosarelli, Stephen E. Fowl, Nijay K. Gupta, Richard B. Hays, Andy Johnson, Sylvia C. Keesmaat, Brent Laytham, Christopher W. Skinner, Klyne R. Snodgrass, Drew J. Strait, and N. T. Wright.
— Richard Bauckham
University of Cambridge
“It is a sign of truly important scholarship that it not only receives recognition but also inspires other scholars to continue to press its insights. Michael Gorman has been one of the key providers of truly important scholarship in our generation as he has tirelessly promoted the significance of participation to any deep understanding of what the New Testament is trying to say. The debt we owe Gorman is attested not just by the fine assembly of scholars in this volume who honor his life and work but also by the way their scholarly contributions here engage directly with his interpretations and continue his work, deepening and widening its insights still further.”
— Douglas A. Campbell
Duke Divinity School
“Michael Gorman’s participationist model has made peace with the other approaches to Pauline scholarship. Where some have said ‘I am of Luther, I am of Calvin, I am of Wesley, or I am of Sanders or Dunn or Wright or Campbell,’ Gorman took their best insights to find a more expansive place for exploring Paul. Each of these friends and students of Gorman expresses that peacemaking approach of Gorman, as his participationist model of redemption is explored in other facets of the New Testament. This will be a blessing for all of us.”
— Scot McKnight
Northern Seminary
Interpretation
“Cruciform Scripture is a fitting tribute for a trend-setting biblical scholar, and it will repay careful attention from Gorman’s fellow exegetes.”
Andy Johnson is professor of New Testament at Nazarene Theological Seminary.
Christopher W. Skinner is associate professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Loyola University Chicago.
Drew J. Strait is assistant professor of New Testament and Christian origins at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary.
Table of Contents
IntroductionBrent Laytham and Pat Fosarelli
Part One: The Cross and the Cruciform Life
1. Matthew, the Cross, and the Cruciform Life
Rebekah Eklund
2. The Crucified One: Jesus’s Death and Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark
Richard B. Hays
3. Luke and the Cross: A Vision of Crucicentric Discipleship
Frank E. Dicken
4. The Johannine Cross as Revelation of the Father: Finding a Cruciform God in the Fourth Gospel
Christopher W. Skinner
5. Cruciformity and the Believer’s Governing Faculties: Rethinking Ἡγεομαι in Philippians
Nijay K. Gupta
Part Two: Participation in Christ, One with God
6. Grasping and Being Grasped: Gift and Agency in Paul
Stephen E. Fowl
7. Baptized into Christ: Romans 6:3–4—the Text on Baptism and Participation
Klyne Snodgrass
8. The Holy Spirit, Justification, and Participation in the Divine Life in Galatians
Ben C. Blackwell
9. Participation in Christ in 1 Peter
Dennis R. Edwards
Part Three: Becoming the Gospel in Mission
10. “Follow Me”: The Mandate for Mission in the Gospel of John
Sherri Brown
11. An Alternative Global Imaginary: Imperial Rome’s Pax Romana and Luke’s “Counter Violent” Missio Dei
Drew J. Strait
12. The Past, Present, and Future of Bodily Resurrection as Salvation: Christ, Church, and Cosmos
Andy Johnson
13. Mother Zion Rejoices: Psalm 87 as a Missing Link in Galatians 4
N. T. Wright
14. Citizenship and Empire: A Missional Engagement with Ephesians
Sylvia C. Keesmaat
15. Following the Lamb Wherever He Goes: Missional Ecclesiology in Revelation 7 and 14:1–5
Dean Flemming
Epilogue
Brian Gorman, Amy Caruso, Mark Gorman
Dr. Michael J. Gorman: Cursus Vitae