Cross Vision

How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence

By: Gregory A. Boyd

Narrated by: Gregory A. Boyd

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Renowned pastor-theologian Gregory A. Boyd tackles the Bible's biggest dilemma.

The Old Testament God of wrath and violence versus the New Testament God of love and peace - it's a difference that has troubled Christians since the first century. Now, with the sensitivity of a pastor and the intellect of a theologian, Gregory A. Boyd proposes the "cruciform hermeneutic", a way to read the Old Testament portraits of God through the lens of Jesus' crucifixion.

In Cross Vision, Boyd follows up on his epic and groundbreaking study, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. He shows how the death and resurrection of Jesus reframes the troubling violence of the Old Testament, how all of Scripture reveals God's self-sacrificial love, and, most importantly, how we can follow Jesus' example of peace.

©2017 Fortress Press (P)2017 Fortress Press

Such an important book for those raised to believe that God used to be violent

This book is truly eye-opening, it will bless many people. The indisputable scriptural fact is that the Father, is just like Jesus, who is the perfect image of his Father. Once you meditate on this fact, it will change your theology forever. It is a universe of difference to believe in a God like Jesus, versus believing in a violent God; on the basis of wrongly understanding the Old Testament depictions.

Must listen!

Great book! Really explains the loving kindness of God. Helps me formulate my explanation of God in the Old Testament for my unbelieving friends.

Thoughtful, Well Researched, Excellent

Any follower of Jesus that is thoughtful has pondered the dissonance between the revelation of Jesus and the Old Testament depictions of violence. Gregory Boyd offers a well thought out and researched solution to the dilemma. Certainly his conclusions are at odds with a "fundamentalist" approach to many accepted doctrines. However, if our claim to be teachable people means anything, we will listen prayerfully.

Book is amazing

This book has been extremely enlightening on understanding what God is truly like , I am so thankful it was written.

Important message, highly repetitious

Boyd makes the case that the violent depictions of God in the Old Testament are still divinely inspired revelations of God — but not ones that we should take at face value, in light of God’s true character, which he revealed on the cross: He would rather die for love of his enemies than slaughter a single one of them. Boyd suggests that God, in fact, is so thoroughly humble that he was willing to endure these millennia of profound misrepresentation in order to continue in contact with mankind for the slow journey of re-opening our eyes and our hearts to behold him, once again, as he truly is.

Engaging, thought-provoking, and, I think, wrong.

This book is very interesting and easy to listen to. The author brings up some points that are well within Christian orthodoxy. The central theme of the book, though, really seems to diverge from the historic understanding of scripture and relies on fringe figures from church history. While I found the book well worth the listen, I also was unconvinced by its central proposal… at least, not entirely convinced.

Faith changer!

When you’re 48 years old and been a Christian for over 30 years you think you’re pretty set on how you view Christ and your faith. Boyd’s book not only challenged some of my misconceptions about God, he blew them out of the water! (In a really good way!) My faith in Christ feels more solid and freeing than ever! I️ truly consider Boyd to be one of the most profound teaching Theologians of our century. Thank you Greg for all your time and research you have clearly invested in this book over the last 10 years! To Christ be the glory!

brilliant, erudite, challenging, and hope-filled

I loved this. While some of the ideas are challenging for me, there is enough information I am familiar with from my own studies that inspire me...believing that Boyd's thesis is worth serious consideration.

Excellent Book / Excellent Reading

Greg Boyd has had a major influence on my spiritual walk and the way in which I view God. I predict that this book and its sister book, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, will one day be considered classics and widely regarded as the norm in the ways in which followers of Jesus engage with these challenging passages of scripture. Also, on a side note, I am glad that the author also narrated his book, allowing the audience to experience his personality as he engages with the questions presented in his book. Please have Greg Boyd narrate more of his books on here.

Eyeopening and heart-stirring

A friend recommended this book to me as I have struggled increasingly with the picture of a violent God in the Old Testament. I read Engaging the Powers by Walter Wink which gave me an appetite to discover more and confront my life-long (48 years) „looking away“ from these violent depictions of God in the OT. Deep inside me I knew God is love but I had no tools or paths to explore these ugly stories of old so I ignored them and also never really got any plausible answers from people, pastors or theologians along the way. I always felt that the way of trying to understand God must be in some way theo-logical. That is to try and read the bible as it depicts God in a way that is also logical and consistent with God’s character I see in the NT and also see in my own life and followers of Jesus around me. This book gave me a way, a viewpoint of interpreting these difficult passages in the OT which is very helpful, plausible and theo-logical.
The author‘s reasoning and encouragement to see what’s going on behind the scenes is simple enough in its methodology for laymen like me to actually put it into practice and start reading passages through the Crucified Christ filter.
The book also challenged my paradigm on what „all scripture is inspired by God“ means. I feel like this book has given me a healthy, non-dangerous and very helpful path to understanding violent depictions of God in the Old Testament. I can’t wait to discuss with others! Thank you Gregory Boyd!