Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cruciformity: Narrative Patterns of the Cross

In chapter five Gorman seeks to set the groundwork for the rest of his book.  He does this primarily through looking at the master text, or the text that best explains Paul's narrative understanding of the cross.  Gorman sees this foundational text as Phil 2.6-11 ( even though Paul probably did not create this text he most certainly owned it).

In summation Gorman states that, ' For Paul, to be in Christ is to be a living exegesis oft his narrative of Christ, a new performance of the original drama of exaltation following humiliation, of humiliation as the voluntary renunciation of rights and selfish gain in order to serve and obey.'

Gorman then lays out what he sees as the four narrative patterns of Cruciformity:

  1. Cruciformity as faithful obedience, or cruciform faith.
  2. Cruciformity as voluntary self-emptying and self giving regard to others. This includes: love, grace, sacrifice, altruism/substitution, self giving, voluntary self-humbling/abasement, and incarnation and suffering. This is also called cruciform love.
  3. Cruciformity as paradox, namely life giving suffering and the transformative potency of weakness. This includes: paradoxical power and wisdom, interchange of character between Christ and believers, the apocalyptic victory and the liberation of new life and transformation, and reconciliation and justification. This is also called cruciform power.
  4. Cruciformity as the pattern of reversal, it is the requisite prelude to resurrection and exaltation, or cruciform hope.

 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mate,

Nice blog. I found a link to this site through Solyent Green. I read that blog daily. Good stuff here. John Baker, a friend of mine here in Melbourne told me about his site. Are you still in England? Where did you do your undergrad work?

Thanks again for your posts. God bless you. I love the Book of Romans.

Archie the Aussie

metalepsis said...

glad you enjoy!

I am currently living stateside.

Sharad of Solyent Green is a great friend of mine, and much smarter.

I did my undergrad at the University of Nebraska (go huskers!)in History and Greek.

cheers

Anonymous said...

Right on mate! What is a "husker?" Never been to America and don't know much about Nebraska. Do they have any pro sports teams there?

Did you go right from Nebraska to England? Will visit here often. God bless.

Archie

metalepsis said...

a husker is short for corn husker, or one who husks corn.

thanks for reading!