Saved from Sacrifice

Download or read book Saved from Sacrifice written by Mark S. Heim and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2006-08-10 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.