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

The popular Patheos blogger wants to restore the cross as primarily a symbol of God’s overwhelming love for us and to rescue Christians from the shame and guilt from seeing our situation as “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” which was an invention of the medieval church and became enshrined as orthodox Christianity.

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. He looks beyond medieval convictions and liberates how we see Jesus’s death on the cross from this restrictive paradigm. 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. Did God Kill Jesus? is essential reading for modern Christians.

Christianity is about love ("God is love," "Jesus loves me"), and Christians are to love self, neighbors, even enemies. So, when people are asked what Christians are known for today, why is "love" not listed?

Tony Jones, popular theologian, speaker, blogger, and a founder of the emergent church movement, claims that much of the fault can be placed at the foot of the church's most common explanations of Jesus' crucifixion. While the Bible and Christian experience tell us the cross is all about love, today's most popular model for understanding the cross leaves us feeling guilty, ashamed, even unlovable, and thus disinclined to love others. How did the meaning of the cross change so radically from its biblical roots?

In Did God Kill Jesus? Jones takes us on an intriguing biblical and historical journey revealing just how this message of love was subverted and how it can be restored. He shows how many doctrines we think of as "biblical" were actually invented centuries later: how Augustine invented "original sin"; how Calvin added "guilt"; and how Anselm, an eleventh-century bishop, came up with the current majority view—God hates us sinners and so sent Jesus to be executed and pay our sin penalty so that God can pretend to see Jesus when looking at us. This is how we go from the Bible's assurance that God loved us "while we still were sinners" to becoming "sinners in the hands of an angry God." Jones argues that it should not be a surprise, then, that Christians feel guilty and unlovable—the very things the cross was meant to remedy.

Jones invites readers to join a movement to restore the cross as the potent symbol of love at the heart of the faith. By reconnecting us with what the Bible actually teaches and exploring how other traditions teach about Jesus' death—as well as providing Jones' own model—Did God Kill Jesus? will help us put love back at the center of what Christians believe and what they should be known for.

“One of those rare texts that is both informative and inspirational. It’s given me fresh eyes with which to see the crucifixion and a view of God that makes sense in and for the world in which we live.” - J. Ryan Parker, Pop Theology

“It is a bold and daring thing to do popular theology about the central tenet of our Christian faith, but Jones has done it brilliantly. The result, Did God Kill Jesus? is the one and only book I have ever seen on the Atonement that I can wholeheartedly recommend without reservation and with devout enthusiasm. Even-handed, historically complete, accessible to any reader who chooses to approach it, this is a masterful piece of work.” - Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence

“Did God Kill Jesus? is the one and only book I have ever seen on the Atonement that I can wholeheartedly recommend without reservation and with devout enthusiasm. Even-handed, historically complete, accessible to any reader who chooses to approach it, this is a masterful piece of work.” - Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence

“This book might change how you think about the Cross, but it is much more likely that it will change how you pray your way toward the Cross. Jones concludes with Julian of Norwich feeling God’s presence and understanding the Cross as a source of peace—as you will, too.” - Lauren F. Winner, author of Wearing God

“This book might change how you think about the Cross, but really that change is secondary. It is much more likely that this book will change how you pray your way toward the Cross. When I finished reading Did God Kill Jesus?, I opened my Bible to Matthew 27, the Crucifixion, Jesus’s yielding up the ghost. More than I ever had when pondering the Cross before, I read Matthew 27 that morning, and I knew God was near. Tony Jones concludes this book with Julian of Norwich looking at the Cross, feeling God’s presence, and understanding the Cross as a source of peace. By the time you get there, to the end of the book, you won’t just be reading about Julian’s experience— you will be having it, too. - Lauren F. Winner, author of Wearing God

“An important new book…a compelling theological appeal toward a more gracious, more biblically-sound meaning of the cross for us today…essential reading.” - Patheos

“An accessible theological tour de force.” - Adam Ericksen, Patheos

“This important, smart, readable, and ultimately beautiful book allows this generation to re-claim the cross as the place of God’s deepest love rather than the place of our deepest shame. Jones unlocks the chains of fear and shame that bind so much of Christianity and offers us instead, freedom.” - Nadia Bolz-Weber, author of Pastrix

“If you love Jesus and the Bible, but don’t know what to do about a God whose default mode is disgust with humanity, who demands a payment for a debt we cannot pay, and who kills his Son to appease his anger, you need to read Did God Kill Jesus?.” - Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So

“Jones draws from what we know to be the nature of God to conclude that the essence of atonement, the heart of Christianity, is not punishment or judgment for original sin, but love. Accessible, bold, and brilliant, this book should be read by everyone.” - Sharon Tan, Vice President of Academic Affairs /Dean McVay Professor of Christian Ethics United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

“Too often simple ignorance of our theological history traps us in dead ways of thinking. For some, all the questions surrounding atonement have been long settled, but for Jones-and a rising revolution of thoughtful Christians-faithfulness to the God of the present sometimes means we must betray the past.” - Ryan Meeks, founding pastor of EastLake Church

“An exciting historical journey of understanding the death of Jesus with insights that are biblically sound, culturally astute, and contextually relevant. Jones moves us to reconsider our traditional means of seeing God, sin, Christ, and each other, leaving us with an indelible new sense of the meaning of the cross.” - Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Ph.D., visiting researcher at Georgetown University and author of Embracing the Other and Colonialism, Han, and the Transformative Spirit

“I love this book—not because I agree with all of it, but because I agree with Jesus and it helped me see him more clearly. Tony Jones explores the great mystery of how one of the most offensive events in history has become the conduit of God’s love.” - Shane Claiborne, author, activist, and follower of the executed and risen Jesus

“An extended exploration of one of Christian theology’s oldest, most vexing, intriguing, and important questions. Jones urges us to reject the most popular conventional answers and embrace better alternatives. You’ll be grateful for a chance to think alongside a passionate, inspiring theologian who writes with clarity, intensity, and relentless curiosity.” - Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity

“Engaging and accessible, written with the right mix of humility and conviction, Did God Kill Jesus? invites readers to wrestle with key questions about Christianity. I learned something new on every page and will be thinking about this one for a long, long time.” - Rachel Held Evans, author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Searching for Sunday

“Tony has redeemed “redemption” for many today who, despite being put off by the blood-crazed, “vampire” vision of Christianity, desperately desire to discover the God of love in the egregious Golgotha. And Tony has done this with theological rigor and pastoral playfulness, with wisdom and wit.” - Rev. José Francisco Morales, Director of Pastoral Formation, Disciples Seminary Foundation

“Christians struggle to fully comprehend the significance of Christ’s death. Tony Jones has written an honest and important book to help readers make sense of the cross and its implications for our lives today. This is a book every Christian should read.” - Adam Hamilton, author of Making Sense of the Bible