Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words

by Stanley Hauerwas

Publisher:

Brazos

, 2011

Overview

In Cross-Shattered Christ, theologian Stanley Hauerwas offers a moving reflection on Jesus’ final words from the cross. This small and powerful volume is theologically poignant and steeped in humility. Hauerwas’ pithy discussion opens our ears to the language of Scripture and opens our hearts to a truer vision of God. Touching on, in original and surprising ways, subjects such as praying the Psalms and our need to be remembered by Jesus, Hauerwas emphasizes Christ’s humanity as well as the sheer “differentness” of God. Cross-Shattered Christ is ideal for personal devotion during Lent and throughout the year and offers a transformative reading of Jesus’ words that goes directly to the heart of the Gospel.

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Key Features

• Offers reflection on Jesus’ final words from the cross
• Shows how to pray the Psalms
• Examines Christ’s humanity

Contents

• The First Word
• The Second Word
• The Third Word
• The Fourth Word
• The Fifth Word
• The Sixth Word
• The Seventh Word

Top Highlights

“Rather, ‘mystery’ names that which we know, but the more we know, the more we are forced to rethink everything we think we know.” (Page 15)

“By allowing himself to be handed over, Jesus in his dying is not trying to give meaning and purpose to death. As Bonhoeffer observed, Jesus’s death and resurrection is not the solution to the problem of death. Rather this is the death of the Son of God.” (Page 29)

“According to Herbert McCabe, these words, ‘Father, forgive,’ are nothing less than the interior life of the Triune God made visible to the eyes of faith.” (Pages 29–30)

“Sentimentality is the attempt to make the gospel conform to our needs, to make Jesus Christ our ‘personal’ savior, to make the suffering of Christ on the cross but an instant of general unavoidable suffering. I should like to think the relentless theological character of these meditations helps us avoid our sinful temptation to make Jesus’s words from the cross to be all about us.” (Page 16)

“Theology is the delicate art necessary for the Christian community to keep its story straight” (Page 17)

Praise for the Print Edition

Hauerwas strips down the seven last sayings of Jesus to their barest essence, refusing to psychologize or proffer easy explanations for hard truths. For the third saying (‘Woman, behold thy son!’), he points out that the Jesus of the New Testament was nothing if not anti-family, and then launches into an utterly fascinating argument that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is presented as the ‘new Abraham’ throughout the Gospels and the Book of Hebrews. Many readers will find it refreshing to see a Protestant theologian recognize Mary’s unique role in salvation and in the church. One note of caution: although these essays are short and the entire book clocks in at right around a hundred pages, even serious readers will find that this is not a collection to be consumed in a single sitting. It would make excellent devotional reading for all of Holy Week, using each reflection for a full day’s rumination.

—Publishers Weekly

Hauerwas rightly reckons that you cannot understand the birth of Jesus without wrestling with his death.

—Wall Street Journal

Packed with good theology. . . . I read Hauerwas’ book slowly and, in the process, discovered a number of new ways of thinking about the Passion narratives. This book would make good reading during the Lenten season, or a nice companion text for a retreat.

—Commonweal

This slim volume provides some strong and salutary reading for the Lenten season. Famed theologian and writer Stanley Hauerwas takes up a time-honored and beautiful tradition of reflecting on the seven last words of Jesus. . . . Each of these meditations . . . deals powerfully with these evocative biblical texts and their implications for Christian life today.

—The Bible Today

Product Details

• Title: Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words
• Author: Stanley Hauerwas
• Publisher: Brazos Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 288

About Stanley Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. Prior to that, he was a professor at the University of Notre Dame. In 2001, he was named “America’s Best Theologian” by TIME Magazine. Hauerwas is the author of numerous books, including Unsettling Arguments, Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir, Christian Existence Today, and Living Gently in a Violent World.