Journal of Psychology and Christianity Copyright 2009 Christian Association for Psychological Studies
2009, Vol. 28, No. 4, 370-374 ISSN 0733-4273
Book Reviews
Rodney L . Bassett, Editor
THE THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS IN HISTORI- nature of God’s presence to us cannot be
CAL PERSPECTIVE. Anna Madsen. Eugene, OR: eclipsed even by our apparent termination.
Pickwick, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2007. Pp. 269 Westhelle takes a somewhat different approach.
+ ix, pb, $28.00. THE SCANDALOUS GOD, THE Instead of Madsen’s perspective, which is in the
USE AND ABUSE OF THE CROSS. Vitor West- final analysis pastoral and passionate, his trajecto-
helle, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2006. Pp. 180 + ry is more intellectualized. His ten chapters
xii, pb, $18.00. Reviewed by J. Harold Ellens. include 1) Evasions of the Scandal; 2) The Scan-
dalous God; 3) God Against God, Reformation,
Madsen addresses us on 1) The Cross in
Then and Now; 4) Uses and Abuses, Modern Cri-
Contemporary Theology; 2) The Stumbling
tiques and Responses; 5) Knowledge and Suffer-
Block that Became the Cornerstone: The Cross
ing, Epistemological Implications of the Cross; 6)
in Paul’s Theology; 3) Calling the Thing What
Cross and Poetry, The Mask of God and Human
it Actually Is: Luther’s Theology of the Cross;
Accountability toward Creation; 7) The Practice
4) The Cross Planted in the Soil of War, Femi-
of Resurrection, On Asserting the Openness of
nism, Poverty, and Wealth; and 5) Is there One
Past Victimizations; 8) A “Theory” of the Cross,
Theology of the Cross? Her book contains an
The Human Arts: Poiesis, Praxis, and Theoria; 9)
excellent bibliography and separate indexes
Cross and Eschatology, The Ends of the World;
for names, topics, and scripture references.
She is professor of Religion at Augustana Col- and 10) The Stations of the Cross Revisited, Via
lege in Sioux Falls and is ordained in the ELCA Crucis et Resurrectionis.
communion. Daniel L. Migliore, Charles Hodge Professor of
The theology of the cross is, without question, Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological
a concept that is receiving much attention today. Seminary, who wrote Faith Seeking Understand-
Many publications are being produced which ing, declares Westhelle’s work to be highly orig-
address the issue. This one, however, demon- inal on: the scandal of the cross, the multiple
strates that a theology of the cross is not a fanci- abuses it endures, the radically different under-
ful preoccupation for the dilettante. This work is standing of God it promotes, the paradoxical
substantive and comprehensive. Theologies of language it requires, and the restless attack on
the cross appear at the earliest moments in the our dominant rationalities it perpetrates and the
church’s history, are reviewed and revised dur- “practice of resurrection” it authorizes. Oh well,
ing the Reformation by Luther, C