I'm reading
Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker. I'll possibly get around to reviewing it some day but for now here is a quote:
When Christian baptism and Eucharist affix blame for killing Christ, then the rituals function to separate the "forgiven" from the "guilty". Christians become, by definition, those who have been absolved, and Jews and pagans become unrepentant killers. Participating in such rituals embeds remission for the sin of killing Christ as an indelible aspect of Christian identity. History shows that ritually enacting this understanding can fuel a deadly dynamic that separates those worthy to live from those who deserve to die. Such rituals shape who is embraced within the saved community and who must be scapegoated or sacrificed to preserve the community's identity. Whether and how Christians can memorialise Jesus's crucifixion without fomenting hostility to those who hold to a different faith remains a moral issue for those who participate in such rituals. (Page 162)
This possibly summarises the argument of this book and it is an interesting idea. It certainly accords with experience. The track record of Christian churches across the world is not brilliant in this respect. I've mostly believed the cross is central to Christian theology and that the paradox of a faith with an instrument of brutal torture and judicial murder at the centre of its witness has something to say about the powers and principalities.
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