What 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction

     Brent 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