As I read Timothy John Tracy's The Cross and Its Obsolescence, one word kept coming to mind: blasphemy. That's not a word we use a lot, and it's not a word to be used lightly. But I think it's inevitable. Tracy, a lawyer, is well-read and certainly very bright. (As he reminds us frequently by his constant use of rather obscure words, and, since we are not as smart as he is and might need some help with the vocabulary, he provides a glossary at the end. Such intellectual arrogance.) He's one of those people who thinks so highly of his own thoughts that he doesn't have a problem sweeping away twenty centuries of Christian thought and declaring that his way of thinking about God is superior.

It's not the rejection of church tradition and established Christian theology that bothered me most. It's his conception of God. He has constructed a God not from the witness of scripture but from what he thinks God's character should be. The Cross and Its Obsolescence is written as an extended prayer to Tracy's idea of God, in which he rejects substitutionary atonement and speaks of the unreasonableness of one of the central tenets of the Christian faith. The gospel, the message of Jesus death on the cross, is not good news, but "disgusting news, a miserable message about a miserable God who cannot forgive and abide with the created without the blood of the spotless."

Christians who disagree with Tracy are not only unreasonable, they perpetuate "toxic intorsions," pervert the character of God, are "idolaters of the Bible, worshippers of the cross of Christ," "sowers of rotten seed," hold to "unconscionable doctrines," and on and on. You get the idea. I picture Tracy in the courtroom, trying to wow the jury by using colorful descriptions, trying to impress them with his large vocabulary, and describing his opponent in such a way that he would make the jury feel like they would be idiots to rule against Tracy's client.

Tracy says he followed fundamentalist Christian faith for many years, and that he has "no desire to renounce Christianity." Clearly he sees himself as a force for reform, speaking prophetically against the "morally bankrupt" theologies perpetuated by the church. However, he basically speaks from his own authority, having dismissed the authority of scripture. The one positive thing I'll say about The Cross and Its Obsolescence is that if the Christian reader can get past the arrogance of the author and his constant excessive verbosity, he or she will be driven to reflect more deeply on biblical Christianity and on the glory and redemption of the cross.

Tracy presents a caricature of Christian theology against which to argue his point, and offers little scriptural defense of his own position. I kept thinking about what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day. . . . And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." My hope is in Christ and his death and resurrection. I also hope no one else will read The Cross and Its Obsolescence. It's not worth your time.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Well. Were I to be someone who enjoys reading heretical works and bathing in ridiculously pretentious language, this might be something I would eat up. I'm not. I love the Lord too much. While I'm sure this book will find its way into conversation somewhere and somehow, hopefully it finds an exit just as quickly as it did from my reading list.