Includes bibliographical references (pages 613-635) and indexes.

Introduction -- Part I, The Crucifixion: The primacy of the Cross -- The godlessness of the Cross -- The question of justice -- Anselm reconsidered for our time -- The gravity of sin -- Part II, The Biblical motifs: Motifs of the Crucifixion -- The Passover and the Exodus -- The blood sacrifice -- Ransom and redemption -- The Great Assize -- The apocalyptic war: Christus Victor -- The descent into hell -- The substitution -- Recapitulation -- Conclusion: Condemned into redemption : the rectification of the ungodly.

Though the apostle Paul boldly proclaimed "Christ crucified" as the heart of the gospel, Fleming Rutledge notes that preaching about the cross of Christ is remarkably neglected in most churches today. In this book Rutledge addresses the issues and controversies that have caused pastors to speak of the cross only in the most general, bland terms, precluding a full understanding and embrace of the gospel by their congregations. Countering our contemporary tendency to bypass Jesus' crucifixion, Rutledge in these pages examines in depth all the various themes and motifs used by the New Testament evangelists and apostolic writers to explain the meaning of the cross of Christ. She mines the classical writings of the Church Fathers, the medieval scholastics, and the Reformers as well as more recent scholarship, while bringing them all into contemporary context. Widely known for her preaching, Rutledge seeks to encourage preachers, teachers, and anyone else interested in what Christians believe to be the central event of world history. - Publisher.

Few treatments of the death of Jesus Christ have made a point of accounting for the gruesome, degrading, public manner of his death by crucifixion, a mode of execution so loathsome that the ancient Romans never spoke of it in polite society. Rutledge probes all the various themes and motifs used by the New Testament evangelists and apostolic writers to explain the meaning of the cross of Christ. She shows how each of the biblical themes contributes to the whole, with the Christus Victor motif and the concept of substitution sharing pride of place along with Irenaeus's recapitulation model.