Tuesday 29 July 2008

Abolish the cross!



Read something today that I quite liked. A chap called C.S. Song (no idea who he is) said that the task of Christian mission is "to work towords the abolition of the cross", understanding the cross as "the height of human cruelty and the depth of God's suffering with humanity." Another guy, building on this said, "The reverence for the cross in the church appears unrelated, or even counter, to the struggle to end the suffering of the oppressed...The anthropology of the cross sets out God's concrete solidarity with victims, and a sharp critique of the collective mechanisms of violence turned against them."

I like that. I think it was Moltman (a concentration camp victim) who famously talked about the crucified God - the cross as God sharing solidarity with the victim. Girard's stuff also shows how through this solidarity the mechanisms of scapegoating are unmasked. I like the idea that in this way the cross works to end all such similar atrocities - darfur, guantanamo, bosnia, zimbabwe. It makes me think about the stuff Jesus said about "do this in rememberance of me" functioning a bit like Holocaust Day - remembering so nothing like this would ever happen again.

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