Did God Kill Jesus? Searching for Love in History's Most Famous Execution

by Tony Jones

Publisher:

HarperOne

, 2023

Overview

The theologian and author of The God of Wild Places dispels the angry God narrative of crucifixion in this uplifting and accessible book.

Many Christians believe that God the Father demanded his only Son die a cruel, gruesome death to appease His wrath, since humanity is so irredeemably sinful and therefore repugnant to God. Tony Jones, popular progressive Christian blogger, author, and scholar, argues that this understanding is actually a medieval invention and not what the Bible really teaches. 

In Did God Kill Jesus?, Jones looks beyond medieval convictions to reframe how we see Jesus’s death. Christians today must transcend the shame and guilt that have shaped conceptions of the human soul and made us fearful of God, and replace them with love, grace, and joyfulness, which better expresses what the cross is really about.

How we understand the cross reflects directly what kind of God we worship. By letting go of the wrathful God who cannot stand to be in our presence unless he pretends to see Jesus in our place, we discover the biblical God who reaches out to love and embrace us while “we were yet sinners.” Jones offers a positive, loving, inclusive interpretation of the faith that is both challenging and inspiring.

Product Details

• Title: Did God Kill Jesus? Searching for Love in History's Most Famous Execution
• Author: Tony Jones
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780062297983, 9780062297976, 006229797X, 0062297988
• Resource ID: LLS:9780062297983
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T19:16:31Z

About Tony Jones

Tony Jones is an Emerging Church leader and the National Coordinator of Emergent Village. Educated at Dartmouth College and Fuller Theological Seminary, Jones is also a doctoral fellow and senior research fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary where he is in the process of completing his PhD in practical theology.

(From Theopedia.com. Freely redistributable under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)