Contextualized communication of Cross Lectures - HO
…1
Outline:
MY INTRO ......................................................................................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
INTRO OF WEEK: PURPOSE OF COURSE ...................................................................................................................................... 1
TEXT BOOK REVIEW:..................................................................................................................................................................... 1
McKnight, A Community Called Atonement ..............................................................................................................1
Kraft, Communication Theory for Christian Witness ............................................................................................2
Recovering the Scandal .....................................................................................................................................................2
Proclaiming the Scandal ...................................................................................................................................................2
WHY SPEND TIME WORKING OUT CONTEXTUALIZED COMMUNICATION? ............................................................................ 3
MY STORY THAT ILLUSTRATES COURSE ..................................................................................................................................... 3
DEFINITIONS: GOSPEL / CROSS. ................................................................................................................................................. 3
EPISTEMOLOGY.............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
THE STARTING POINT: YOUR STORY .......................................................................................................................................... 3
BIBLICAL METAPHORS OF THE CROSS / SALVATION ................................................................................................................ 3
DEFINITIONS .................................................................................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
Resonance ...............................................................................................................................................................................3
Contextualization ................................................................................................................................................................3
Metaphor.................................................................................................................................................................................4
Worldview / metanarrative ............................................................................................................................................4
Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross ................................................................................................4
Redemption .................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Covenant .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Blood, Shedding of blood .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Lamb of God, Sacrifice................................................................................................................................................ 5
Propitiation .................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Reconciliation ................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Justification ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5
A THEOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION .............................................................................. ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
HERMENEUTICS ............................................................................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
TOOLS FOR EVALUATING PRESENTATIONS.................................................................. ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
Muller’s dichotomies: .......................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Tools: Bridge Principles...................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Tools: Learning cycle: ......................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Tools: Evaluative questions .............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Tools: Communal element: dialogue ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Using the tools: ...................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
THE ISSUE OF ART AND EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION. ............................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
SHAPING PRESENTATIONS............................................................................................. ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
Communication Theory ...................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Defining the problem ........................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Assessing assumptions ........................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Describing a metanarrative ............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Identifying a metaphor ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Choosing the right vocabulary ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Intro of week: purpose of course
 This week is to be a conversation.
 This is NOT a course on theology (soteriology - understanding the cross), but on contextualization
(communicating the cross).
 “The goal is … to make the gospel understandable.”
Text book review: McKnight, A Community Called Atonement
 Atonement as a way of life, it is a story we live.
 bag of clubs in golf analogy.
Contextualized communication of Cross Lectures - HO


the cross must include and intersect with kingdom life.
Penal Substitution
 God is holy and that humans are sinful.
 God, because he is holy, can’t simply ignore human sin and be true to his own holiness. So
there must be a just punishment (hence, penal).
 Jesus Christ, the God-Man, stood in the sinner’s place, absorbing God’s just punishment on
sin and sinners (hence, substitution).
 Because God demands utter perfection for entry into God’s presence, not only are our sins
imputed to Christ on the cross but his righteousness was then imputed to us.
 the mechanics are thus explained:
o God remains holy and just by judging sinners and,
o forgives sin and justifies sinner, by imputing Christ’s obedience to us.
Kraft, Communication Theory for Christian Witness
 how communication works
 a theology of communication
 principles for communication
Recovering the Scandal
o Baker and Green argue that we should be listening to other voices, that is metaphors, than penal
substitution.
o Contextual concerns:
 All metaphors of the cross are contextually driven
 There is no one model of the atonement that is the REAL one.
Proclaiming the Scandal
Illustrations of the “other voices”





…2
people in their context understand how the cross makes sense to them using their language and
assumptions and concepts.
metaphors of the cross that were created for a different time no longer resonate
Irenaeus (late 2nd century): Christus Victor
o Context
 Caesar is Lord
 Cosmology of spiritual powers
o Biblical image:
 Based on the Incarnation
 Adam versus Christ
 Jesus conquers death and Satan as the human representative
 Resurrection
o Proclaiming: Steve Taylor in Proclaiming chpt 10, p108 the role of representatives
Gregory Nyssa (4th century): Ransom
o Context
 Slavery and ransom and release (Ambrose melted the sacramental vessels to free
slaves)
 Power of the devil evident in every day pain and hurt
o Biblical image:
 Jesus is the ransom for many
 To whom? The Devil. The devil thought he was able to take the son of God, but
Jesus’ purity and divinity was too strong.
o Proclaiming: CS Lewis’ image in the Lion, witch and wardrobe
Anselm (11th century) Satisfaction model
o Context
 Feudal system: Medieval kings, lords and vassals
 Honor is due kings, vassals responsibility is to pay their dues to the king.
Contextualized communication of Cross Lectures - HO

…3
 If they fail to do this, there must be satisfaction, usually death
 Read p. 126 parable
o Biblical image
 Heb 10:1-10
Charles Hodge (19th century) Penal satisfaction
o Context
 Strong punitive legal structures in society.
 Assumptions of a universal moral law that cannot be broken
 Assumptions of human sin
 Eg. P. 141 illustration
 Eg p. 143 Hodge quote
o Biblical image
 Heb passage among others (Rom 3:23)
o Proclaiming: Atonement as drama, p. 75 substitution, but not penal or honor
Why spend time working out contextualized communication?
 Mark 1:1-4 an analogy or paradigm of ministry
 Our job is to make the path straight, to prepare a road.
 One of the worst crimes is to tell the gospel in a way that doesn’t relate to the audience so that
people say, “That sounds interesting, but it doesn’t relate to me and my life.” What we do want is
for people to say “I wish it was true.”
My story that illustrates course
Definitions: Gospel / cross.
Epistemology
The epistemological issue: how do we know?
o Kernel and husk:
o Critical realism: the assertion that while there is an ontological reality that exists
independent of our ability to perceive it, we can only experience that reality through our
personal and cultural lenses.
All truth is only known from a given perspective.
What are the implications from this?
We are looking for perspectives of the cross that do two jobs:
Maintain integrity with Scripture. (there is a truth “out there”)
Resonate with a particular context.
The starting point: Your story
 Why is the cross significant for you? What is your personal story about the cross?
Biblical metaphors of the cross / salvation
Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross
 Outlines what the apostles were talking about when they explained the significance of the cross.
 The writers did not have words to express the meaning of the cross, other than the language,
concepts and assumptions of the people they were addressing.
Resonance
Resonance refers to the way the hearers perceive and respond to the relevance of a message. Resonance
goes beyond comprehension to describe the impact of the message upon the faith (worldview, values and
beliefs) of the reader or listener. Resonance can be positive or negative.
Contextualization
cross-cultural gospel insertion that leads to faith.
Incarnational paradox = a bridge to something new that is already part of the culture.
Contextualized communication of Cross Lectures - HO
…4
Communication (new) (focusing on the new message)
Relevance (bridge)
Resonance (already part)
Philosophy of contextualization. Consider Jon’s from 4 th session post:
 moving from the tangible to intangible (or moving to a connection of the need of the hearer to the
cross as the solution) must be done in a way that flows naturally and maintains the connection
developed.
 any metaphor used must be rooted in the practical world
 maintain a consistency of metaphor from beginning to end (a multiplicity of disjointed metaphors
leaves the reader confused and muddled).
Metaphor
McKnight: a metaphor of atonement is a set of lenses through which we describe God’s acts of resolving
sin and of bringing humans back home in their relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the
world.
Vanhoozer: Atonement theories are “not a set of timeless propositions, nor an expression of religious
experience, nor grammatical rules for Christian speech and thought, but rather an imagination that
corresponds to and continues the gospel by making good theological judgments about what to say and do
in light of the reality of Jesus Christ”
McKnight: Atonement theories are imaginative metaphors that speak of the concrete reality of what God
does through Jesus Christ.
McKnight: the metaphor is not the thing. The metaphor gives the reader or hearer an imagination of the
thing, a vision of the thing, a window onto the thing, a lens through which to look in order to see the thing.
Metaphors take us there, but they are not the “there.”
Boersma: (Metaphors] are a divinely given means to avoid idolatrous claims of knowledge. Metaphors are
nonliteral descriptions of reality. They are an acknowledgment that we need to access the world around us
in an indirect fashion, and that the idea of direct and complete access is an arrogant illusion that violates
the multifaceted integrity of the created world.
Implications:
 "all analogies limp" (Friesen in Proclaiming)
 a key to metaphors is their ability to connect the hearer with the cross. That is, we need to be
receptor sensitive: If the hearer, by means of the analogy, sees the cross more clearly, it is a good
metaphor (despite possible inadvertent messages)
 the problem with metaphors are the inadvertent messages that the hearer may pick up. Thus a
poor metaphor is one that distracts the hearer from the primary point.
 The connection of a metaphor with the cross will be determined by the assumptions
(metanarrative) brought by the hearer (not the speaker).
Worldview / metanarrative
 Worldview refers to the fundamental beliefs (conceptual framework – answers the question why?)
a particular ethnic group have about life, the universe and everything.
 Narrative, in the sense of metanarrative, is a description that creates the background or
interpretation of an event.
Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross
Redemption
– the ransom concept. Jesus is the ransom for us (Mk 10:45, Titus 2:14). The cross is a ransom price, a
payment to release us. Key context: slavery. The meaning is therefore, Jesus gave his life so we can live. 3
issues: there is a cost, there is an evil situation from which we are set free, there is a substitution.
Covenant
– “this is the new covenant in my blood”
1) The Abrahamic Covenant – Gen 15
2) The Old Covenant - Ex. 24:3-8
Contextualized communication of Cross Lectures - HO
…5
3) The New Covenant - Luke 22:20
a. Not with animal blood but Christ's own so that sin could be dealt with - Heb. 9:12-14
b. Not based on humanity's work but on Christ and therefore it is perfect - Heb. 10:11-18
c. Therefore it has the strength of the Abrahamic covenant because based on Christ and the strength
of the Mosaic covenant because he also stands in the place of humanity! Yet without the
weakness of either.
4) Better Priest, Better Sacrifice, Better Covenant - Heb. 7:15-22
All who are in Christ have a new, perfect and everlasting covenant with God.
Blood, Shedding of blood, Lamb of God, Sacrifice
Giving up of life, dying is required, in order to deal with sin
Propitiation
What does the dying do? Turns away God’s wrath.
The point is that the metanarrative of the hearer determines the meaning of the metaphor.
Corollary: if the metanarrative of the audience is different from the speaker’s – then the metaphor
will not work. You can’t just provide biblical metaphors to teens. In order to provide the SAME
gospel, you must tell a different story.
Reconciliation
Estranged and brought back together in peace and unity
 Luke 15 – prodigal son
We are reconciled to God, not God to us. God doesn’t change, we are brought back into relationship with
him. (not all agree with this – Morris doesn’t)
 Eph 2:11-18 and Col 1:19-23
o Enmity, hostility. We are opposed to God.
o Jesus makes peace through the cross
Justification
Forensic metaphor. Picture of judgment and law and righteousness.
God is the Judge that does what is right and makes all things right.
His demand is that all creation conform to the law, the law that reflects the order and goodness of his being.
 The verb, to justify, means to declare righteous, rather than make righteous. Rom 9:30-32
 Not an ethical quality or a judge of character, but a status. Phil 3:6-10
 So how does this acquittal fit with the cross? Rom 3:21-26
o Rom 3:21 – the righteousness of God = how God takes people who are criminals
(sinners), under the wrath of God (fit for punishment), and then declares them “not
guilty”
o Rom 3:23 – in court, all are guilty. Created to live at this standard to reflect the glory of
God, and we fall short
o Rom 4:24-26 – through Jesus’ sacrifice
Bottom line: Jesus’ death destroys the connection between us and sin. sin = death = condemned in God’s
court. Jesus joins us in that death, that punishment, that sin that pulls us down. He identifies with us and
joins us, so that we can identify with him and join him in the resurrection. And so God declares that we are
truly what we have become in Jesus: righteous.