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Shall I Cling to the Old Rugged Cross?
Interrogating and Re-thinking the Power of the Cross

Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro1

Introduction

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.

What power does the cross have that it creates an imagination of “laying down trophies” and exchanging them for a crown? As a Filipina Christian who grew up in poverty, with memories of shame and abuse, what trophies will I lay down? What crown does an “emblem of suffering and shame,” a signifier and embodiment of violence,2 offer to the abused, exploited and marginalized? What trophies will the oppressed lay down when they themselves are the trophies of wars, colonization, slavery and capitalist globalization? How can those whose identity and dignity have been stripped away from them love and cherish such a symbol of violence?

Analysis of the power3 of the cross and the “violent grammar”4 of atonement had been a neglected agenda in theology until very recently. Church preaching and teaching about the cross over the centuries had been influenced by classical formulations that are not only triumphalist but also patriarchal and androcentric in character. Consequently, church teachings on this ubiquitous Christian symbol tend to glorify the cross and gloss over the violence for which it stands. Results of a random survey I did recently among college students indicate this tendency.5 The cross is understood as necessary for the Christ’s saving work, to convey the message of God’s eternal love and forgiveness, and to ward off evil. Further study needs to be done to include opinion of other sectors in Philippine society. However, I deem it safe to say that students’ responses reflect generally the plain Filipino Christians’ understanding of the power and meaning of the cross. But does the cross really possess the power to protect us from evil? Does it really have the power to convey the message of God’s love? Does the cross truly possess power necessary for the saving work of Jesus the Christ?

The cross has occupied a central place in Christianity’s bloody efforts to expand the territory of Christendom. Eusebius of Caesarea’s notion of the cross as an inspiration to conquer and as blessed by God6 unleashed the church’s blessing for the Empire’s crusades and inquisitions in Christ’s name. Henceforth, the cross became an explicit inspiration of Western conquests, genocides, colonization, slavery, and subjugation of indigenous peoples and of Mother Earth. The cross continues to be the force behind the contemporary Empire’s discourse on its fight against terrorism. The Filipinos came to know the cross through the colonizers who came in two big waves. These colonizers brandished the cross alongside the sword and rifles to justify their conquest as an act of liberating the so-called barbarian and heathen natives from the evil of paganism. Echoing Eusebius of Ceasarea’s interpretation of the cross in Constantine’s dream as a mandate to conquer in the name of Christ,7 prominent missionary voices hailed the conquest by force as necessary to prepare the conquest for Christ, and the use of violence as “revelation and prophecy” that was “baptized by the divine Spirit.”8 The purchase of the Philippines by the Americans from Spain9 without the knowledge of the Filipinos demonstrates the violent power of the cross. Davianna Pomaika’i-McGregor cites an article in a 1902 San Francisco magazine that tersely stated the interest behind the act:

The purchase of the archipelago . . . would have been cheap . . . but unfortunately, they are infested with Filipinos . . . [It] is to be feared that their extinction will be slow . . . Therefore, the more of them killed, the better . . . We don’t want the Filipinos; we want the Philippines.10

Today, the system continues with a new mask. This leaves the ordinary Filipino staggering under the cross of political and economic violence caused by a system that is addicted to the lethal drug of neocolonialism. Meanwhile, a stream of “save-the-soul” and “glorify-the-cross” missionaries have entered the country to further induce hallucination among the victims who are driven to self-destruction.

Interrogating the Power of the Cross

I have chosen to examine the discourse on the power of the cross even if there are attempts to redeem the cross from its power to perpetrate violence. Among Christians in the Philippines, a prevalent notion is that the cross has salvific power and is the locus of salvation. I contend that the cross merely points to the reality of humanity’s worst and abysmal possibilities. The cross in itself has no salvific power. Rather, it stands for humanity’s stark failure to live out the potentials for goodness, beauty and holiness. Whatever power is associated with the cross must be re-defined for it to cease as an instrument of violence, especially the sacralized rituals of violence. In her provocative work, The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism,11 Regina M. Schwartz examined the role of sacrificial rituals in shaping the identity of the “chosen people” in the Old Testament. She advances a theory that collective identity and violence are connected to each other. The most fundamental act of violence humanity commits is the process of imagining and constructing identity as “an act of distinguishing and separating from others, of boundary making and line drawing” their territorial maps with blood.12 Schwartz traces this “notion of identity born in violence” to the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly in the biblical narrative because of its great impact in the formation of the notion of identity of Christendom and in secular thoughts. Indeed, stories of the past called history/herstory have shown that collective identities have committed horrible atrocities in the name of identities, be it religious, ethnic, class, national, race and gender.13 Thus, it is important to interrogate and redefine the power of the cross because for centuries, it has served more as a symbol that reinforces the domination of the powerful over those who were considered the weak “other.” Interrogating the power of the cross inevitably means deconstructing the symbol. It means destabilizing the truth claims about the cross by identifying unarticulated presuppositions and demonstrating the failure of such claims to provide a stable underpinning for the statements being made.14 Consequently, we need to reject theories of atonement and the cross that reinscribe and reinforce the domination and subjugation of the other. When those rendered as the “other” claim the power to re-define the meaning of the cross in their lives, they produce reality and rituals of truth and generate subversive knowledge, or, in Michel Focault’s words, the “insurrection of the subjugated knowledge.”15 In paraphrasing Focault, Madan Sarup says “it is not possible for power to be exercised without knowledge, and it is impossible for knowledge not to engender power.”16 The church’s traditional interpreters of the cross in ancient and contemporary times, such as Mel Gibson through his film, The Passion of the Christ, have exercised power over the “others” when they claimed singular authority and privilege of producing “the” correct theological knowledge.

Power of the Cross as Manifestation of Violence

In times past, the power of the cross was located only in its function as an instrument of execution, of political and military punishment. In his book focused on crucifixion, the German scholar Martin Hengel17 asserts that the cross is a structure that signifies the most brutal form of punishment that the Romans, Greeks, and barbarians used in ancient times. In Rome, it was used to punish rebellious aliens, violent criminals and robbers. Hengel notes that “crucifixion was a punishment in which the caprices and sadism of the executioners were given full reign.”18 It was carried out publicly to serve supposedly as a deterrent, but in reality crucifixion only victimized the powerless. The person to be hanged was usually tortured and flogged before being nailed unto the cross. Some were hanged with their heads down to the ground. The victim was displayed naked in prominent places, such as the crossroads, in the theater, on a high ground, at the place of crime to humiliate the person. Death on the cross was very slow. In many cases, the victim was refused burial to complete the humiliation.19 In his book Wars of the Jews, the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that beheading and crucifixion were common ways of punishing criminals or rebels before and after the time of Jesus of Nazareth.20

Why and how did an instrument of torture and death become the venerated symbol of salvation? Why did a symbol of violence replace the earlier Christian symbol of the fish that is more organic and life giving?

Interpretation of the Cross in New Testament Writings

It was said that the symbol of the cross was first used by Ignatius of Antioch (c. 98- 117) to prove to the Docetists that Jesus was truly human who truly died, and thus argued for the claim of the new faith that Jesus is the resurrected Lord. The cross (sta????) is the location of Jesus’ death (Matt. 27:32ff; Mk. 15:21ff. Lk. 23:26; John 19:17 ff.). The Pauline material in the New Testament is replete with discourse on the cross. The interpretation of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross (??ast?????, Rom. 3:25 literally means, “propitiation” or “expiation;” also Phil. 2:8; see also Heb. 12:2.) in Pauline writings had drawn from the imagery of sacrificial offerings and the suffering servant in the Old Testament. Paul speaks of the cross as a scandal and a stumbling block (Gal. 5:11) for those who could not accept the idea that the messiah would die a shameful death on the cross. Paul interpreted the cross as the paradox of God’s wisdom and salvation (Col. 2:4; Eph, 2:16). Jesus “chose” the cross to show his profound love for humanity. Thus, Paul declared the cross to be the only basis of Christian hope (Gal. 6:14). Indeed, Paul spoke of the unique power of the cross. In this light and in spite of the brutality of the cross, it has acquired the status of being the supreme symbol of Christian faith and hope. Today, however, scholars understand Paul’s discourse on the cross and salvation in light of Paul’s efforts to unmask the powers of the Empire of his time. Yet, Paul stayed away from any discourse on the historical modality of Jesus’ death. On the contrary, the gospels are straightforward in warning the disciples that the risk of the cross is a reality in the course of following the steps of Jesus (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Lk. 14:27; Mk. 10:21), thereby not romanticizing the cross. The risk of the cross is there when one commits, just as Jesus did, to resist the evil powers of this world that impose the cross of suffering on the people.

The Cross in the Minds of the Church’s Classic Interpreters

I would like to believe that Paul understood the cross both as a symbol that unmasks the powers of evil embodied by the Roman Empire in his time and as a symbol of sacrifice that the struggle of resistance against such powers requires. His discourse, however, is ambivalent in some parts. Unfortunately, the interpreters amplified the notion of the cross as a symbol of sacrifice only. The discourse of the early church fathers interpreting Paul had complicated the notion of the cross. It seems to me that in their attempt to explain the meaning of the cross, they had brought us farther from the meaning Paul made. To Irenaeus of Smyrna (130-202 C. E.), the cross was necessary to ransom humanity from Apostasy.21 It was a necessary evil, according to Origen, to overcome the devil. It should be our model to usher in the hope of resurrection that Christ’s death brings to believers.22 Origen’s notion of necessary evil is dangerous because it may be used to sanction violence to advance the interest of some people who falsely claim to be the sole agents and custodians of God’s truth. One could argue that violence is not necessary for the work of redemption, but redemptive work demands that believers of the Christ resist violence – be it in the form of discrimination, sickness, and brokenness (Ml. 7:24-30), hunger (Mk. 8:1-10), patriarchy (Jn. 8:1-11), corruption (Mk. 11:15-18), and the violence of the cross. Almost encouraging masochism and invoking Galatians 6:14, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 C.E.) believed in the “sweetness” of the cross that “drags” Christians towards it and inspires piety among them for desires and loves are shaped according to the cross.23 Following the Pauline discourse, Augustine insisted that Jesus chose voluntarily to his humiliation and death, “for he was to have that very cross as His sign; that very cross a trophy, as it were, over the vanquished devil.”24 Augustine’s view of the cross has served the patriarchal church well in disempowering women while it endorses the glorification of the cross. Mary Daly rightly points out that the image of a meek Jesus easily “reinforces the scapegoat syndrome for women.”25 Like Daly, I find it ludicrous to imagine that Jesus meekly volunteered to be tortured and killed. Instead, Jesus actively resisted the evil of violence by refusing to use violence in retaliation, but it does not mean he volunteered to die on the cross. Jesus became the sign of God because of his commitment to live fully and give life abundantly through his praxis of ministry. Certainly, such praxis implied challenging the life-denying, death-dealing powers and structures of his society. Thus, the risk of death lurked. Jesus’ death was a consequence of this praxis of his life-giving, life-affirming ministry. The “point of the risk is not to invite death,” Rita Nakashima Brock asserts. Rather, “the risk is a profound affirmation of the possibility of life beyond oppression.”26

Instead of addressing horrors of the crusades launched by the European church that killed thousands of Muslims in the name of Christendom, thinkers constructed theologies that focused on sacrifice and on the cross. Anselm (1033-1109) of Canterbury’s discourse on the cross in his Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Human) reflects the feudal system of his time. In his theory of satisfaction, a male God demanded justice in form of blood payment to be done by an equally powerful but human being to restore his offended honor. Knowing that there was no one qualified to offer that satisfactory payment, this proud male God acted to become human in Jesus to die on the cross as humanity’s substitute to serve as bait for the devil. In that way, God deceived the devil that could not snatch away the soul of Jesus because Jesus was not only perfectly human but also perfectly divine. Anselm’s understanding of the cross that projects a sulking male God who demands blood sacrifice has inevitably reinforced the patriarchal church’s demand for blood sacrifice from women who were burned at stake or imprisoned for transgressing male norms. Furthermore, it reinforced Christianity’s construction of the “other” and demonization of anyone who is different as Satan who must be subdued.27 To Darby Kathleen Ray, Anselm’s location of God’s salvific act on the cross is “one more tool of theological violence, of power-as-control, which results in the ideological and/or physical domination of some by others.”28 While moving away from Anselm’s notion of satisfying a male God’s self-gratifying scheme of deceiving the devil to recoup his honor, Peter Abelard (1079-1142) of France considered the cross as necessary sacrifice to express God’s love and to set humanity free from sin. The purpose of the cross was to evoke repentance in humanity and a loving response to God. However, like Anselm, Abelard glossed over the violence of the cross and ignored the system of state violence that prevailed in Jesus’ context. Instead, he glorified the cross and mystified the death of Jesus as unique, thereby making contemporary Christians forget that Jesus was one among thousands who were tortured on the cross during that period.29 I can almost hear the hymn that says, “In the cross of Christ I glory!” as an echo of Abelard’s theology. Martin Luther’s theologia crucis proposes that one can see and know God fully in the suffering of Christ on the cross. Believers must embrace the cross for it is there that we bend in humility and see our nothingness apart from God.30 For women, however, to regard oneself as nothing apart from a male God is difficult if the self is already crushed, and victimized by powerful male persons and systems perpetrated, endorsed, and perpetuated by patriarchal institutions.

In his analysis of myths and rituals, René Girard jolts us with his conclusion that violence is at the core of the sacred, and that this thread of violence inextricably runs through human nature and culture.31 Human beings’ mimetic desire manifests as acquisitive desire that leads to violence. However, Girard attempts to redeem the cross by saying that it is the locus of rejecting violence. On the cross, Jesus as the scapegoat refuses to be entangled with mimetic violence and embraced suffering without any thought of reprisal. In this way, Jesus breaks the cycle of violence.32 Yet, in the course of time, we have seen that the model of sacrifice does not necessarily stop the perpetration of violence. Instead, violence continues to escalate as modern technology rises to its peak, and as churches perpetuate the theology of sacrificial suffering.

Re-thinking the Power of the Cross:
Making Sense of the Cross as a Pinay33

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see,
For ‘twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.

Aruna Gnanadason of India notes, “One of the most pernicious aspects of Christian teaching has been this imposed theology of sacrifice and suffering.”34 The theories of atonement that define the power of the cross hardly make sense to Asian people. Kwok Pui Lan points out that the idea of the son dying on the cross to save the world is “unintelligible to the average Chinese.”35 To Stella Baltazar of India, the idea of God sending his son to death on the cross has “been used to justify any unjust suffering as permissible,”36 and negates the understanding that God truly cares about humanity. By browsing the pages of the collection of case studies from India, one can see the heavy cross that patriarchal culture, reinforced by Christian teachings, imposes on Indian women.37 The cross is the suffering of women who are prostituted by an oppressive patriarchal capitalist society, and who are rejected by the righteous, “moral” church. The cross and the violent grammar of atonement make various images of child abuse “acceptable as divine behavior – cosmic child abuse.”38 These gross realities reflect what womanist theologian Delores Williams calls “defilement” and “willful desecration.”39 Williams points to the image of Jesus naked on the cross as a mockery of Jesus’ “ministerial vision” of righting relationships. The image is a derision of his teachings to offer a coat to the naked, feed the hungry, and comfort the lonely. This reading projects the picture of human sin in its most desecrated form:

The cross is a reminder of how humans have tried through history to destroy visions of righting relationships that involve transformation of tradition and transformation of social relations and arrangements sanctioned by the status quo.40

Many sections of the institutional church continue to glorify the cross, but this must stop. The church must tell the truth that Jesus’ death is a political event that points to the social and political evils of his society. The harsh realities of violence that patriarchy and oppressive society have brought to women and to powerless people in society only remind us that the cross of Jesus is just one of the many crosses of his time. It is not unique. It is not a thing of beauty. Crucifixion was a form of death penalty commonly practiced by the Roman Empire. I agree with Catholic theologian Ivone Gebara of Brazil who says that today we can only speak of the cross in plural form. The cross of Jesus is one among many. If one argues for the uniqueness of that cross on the basis of Jesus’ innocence,41 one just needs to look at the suffering of so many innocent people in this world. Yet, women and men must acknowledge their complicity in the imposition of different forms of crosses on others, especially those that “are not even present in the immediate field of our consciousness.”42 Complicity may include one’s silence in the face of production of war machines, the creation of institutions of greed, and destruction of the ecosystem, and many others that are usually justified in the name of God and for the benefit of the privileged people.

Asian male theologians have redefined and looked up to the cross as the site where God and humanity see each other face to face in suffering and hope. According to C.S. Song of Taiwan, the cross proclaims that in Christ there are no strangers, for “to suffer and to hope is human.”43 George Soares Prabhu of India points to the cross as a symbol of conflict with the powerful and it is “the natural outcome of a life of solidarity with the poor and outcasts” for death is the “appropriate fulfillment of a life lived out with and for the poor and outcast.”44 This view is still rooted in the notion of salvific sacrifice. Some Asian feminists try to redeem the cross and redefine its power. Virginia Fabella of the Philippines understands the suffering of Jesus on the cross as an act of solidarity with those who are suffering.45 Yet somehow, this view seems inadequate and still leaves a lacuna. An attempt to redeem the cross by retrieving the Augustinian notion that it is a “beacon of light” that endows suffering “with meaning and dignity”46 only continues to mystify the cross, and makes us turn our gaze away from the deep roots of abuse, violence, and oppression. It even provides the abusers of power a curtain behind which they can hide and get off the hook.

Flora A. Keshgegian of Armenian background offers a possibility of making sense of the cross. She suggests that the cross can be rescued as a redeeming memory only if Christianity confronts the crucifixion “as a traumatic event, embedded in a web of relations.”47 This tragic heuristic is helpful because it offers us a lens through which we see suffering and tragedy as “conflicted context where we must create what right and reason we can.”48 A tragic heuristic makes us face the reality of tragedies and pain in our lived contexts and challenges theology to acknowledge that not all suffering finds redemption. With tragic consciousness, one will be able to see the cross as a reminder or anamnesis (???µ??s??) of the ugliness of humanity’s evil deeds. As such, the cross does not need to be solved, or glossed over, or decorated with convoluted words and doctrines as are usually done in Christian churches. The cross cannot be anything but a symbol of violence. It does not give life. It only takes away life. It has no power in itself to transform life. Yet, tragic consciousness allows us to retrieve what the androcentric theologies have suppressed: to see suffering as it is, to grieve over it, and to rise above it. In other words, it allows us to face the reality of Jesus’ brutal death, and to mourn his death49 and accept that Jesus’ death does not redeem suffering. Jesus’ death only challenges us to struggle against evil. In a straightforward way, this approach draws out hope from women (and men also) when they see the cross as the starting point of the struggle against all symbols of evil power, and a challenge to bring down the crosses that are erected over time and space. Tragic heuristic challenges the moral agency of women to claim not the cross, but the endangered memory of the violence of the cross. This will make women focus on Jesus’ teachings and works as powerfully salvific. Jesus said, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do even greater works than these” (Jn. 14:12). The Eucharist confronts the Christian with this dangerous memory (???µ??s??),50 and with Jesus’ words of challenge: “Do this in memory of me.” Keshgegian insists that the “memory of the cross must be preserved as tragic,”52 because such memo0ry will keep us attentive to possibilities of danger. Acknowledging the memory of the violence of the cross is “a necessary condition for empowerment and transformation” because it kindles the fire and passion of anger against injustice. The hope for life and salvation lies in the resistance against evil that is provoked by the dangerous memory of the cross. If the cross has any power at all, I can only affirm Flora Keshgegian and Rita Nakashima Brock who locate such power in its memory. It is the memory that “refuses to ignore the terrorizing and afflictive power of patriarchal empires” that are bent to dominate and destroy others.53 Christians who glorify the cross and do not recognize its dangerous memory will fall back to abstract discourse about God and Christ. When this happens, evil is kept alive. Relationships will be neglected and people will deceive themselves with the idea of the “tragic necessity of doing evil and accepting evil”54 rather than taking a commitment to persistently resist it.

Conclusion

Shall I cling to the “old rugged cross”? My answer is no. I refuse to cling to the mystified and romanticized symbol of violence that had for centuries endorsed the subjugation of peoples and reinforces the suffering of women at the intersection of patriarchy, sexism, classism, racism, and ethnocentrism. To cling to the old rugged cross is to erase the memory of women’s suffering over past centuries.55 I will, however, keep alive the dangerous memory of the cross when I survey the scars and wounds inflicted on the bodies and spirits of people and of the Earth. The memory of Jesus’ cross is very real in everyday life of many Asian peoples who suffer the grind of poverty and multifarious forms of violence. The dangerous memory of the cross will only have the power to keep me vigilant so that I may not be co-opted by the masked powers of evil. Thus, the memory of the cross reveals the obstinate evil that is the “abuse of power,” be it in the form of the “use of power to dominate and violate, or the relinquishment of power so as to avoid the hard work of moral struggle.”56 In this light, I agree with Ray’s redefinition of the cross as resistance to the obstinacy of evil. Resistance encompasses struggle against patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, classism, ethnocentrism, racism, xenophobia, and all forms of “othering” that dehumanize people and denigrate life. The memory of the violence of the cross should bring Christians to repentance and deep lamentation over the perpetuation of all forms of violence against life. Moreover, such memory will also lead them to do concrete, though dangerous, work of compassion: to stop the violence of crucifixions and bring down the crosses that socio-economic and political structures of empires continue to erect.

I will also cling to the memory of Jesus whose life demonstrated the use of power to enhance life, and to restore balance and harmony57 among peoples, and of the Earth. The memory of Jesus’ suffering will keep one vigilant about one’s propensity to greed and complicity in inflicting violence, and make the struggle for the fullness of life endure. The memory of the cross will move us to ensure that the work of making Jesus’ salvific praxis of love, celebration of friendship, and justice-making will flourish.?

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NOTES:

1 Dr. Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro holds a Ph.D. in systematic theology and now teaches theology at Silliman University Divinity School in Dumaguete City, Philippines.
2 Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 815-16. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, the basic unit of the linguistic sign has two sides, the signifier and the signified. The signifier conveys a particular meaning, or the “signified concept.” Together, the two become the “positive” fact of the sign.
3 Larry L. Rasmussen, "Power Analysis: A Neglected Agenda in Christian Ethics," The Annual (1991): 3-17. This article was his presidential address during the thirty-second annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics.
4 Anthony W. Bartlett, Cross Purposes: The Violent Grammar of Christian Atonement (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 2001).
5 Students of ten Religion classes, each with 45-50 students, were asked to answer the questions: “What comes to your mind when you see a cross? What does the cross, as a Christian symbol mean to you?” 97.4 per cent of the students associate the cross with “Jesus who died to save us from our sin.” The cross is a “symbol of our salvation and of God’s eternal love and forgiveness of our sins.” 2.6 per cent had varied responses: some associate the cross with suffering, others note that it replaced the earlier Christian symbol of the fish, and to some, it has no meaning at all. 70 per cent said they wear a cross as a pendant or as an accessory to their attire, to show that they are Christians and “to ward off evil” or to have a “protection from evil.”
6 Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, Complete and Unabridged, trans. C.F. Cruse, Updated Edition of Reprint ed. (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), 9.9.10-11.
7 Ibid., 343-45, 79. In 9.9.10-11, Eusebius explained that the cross was an inspiration to conquer and that the Roman Empire’s territorial expansion was also the expansion of God’s kingdom on earth.
8 Gerald H. Anderson, "Providence and Politics Behind Protestant Missionary Beginnings in the Philippines," in Studies in Philippine Church History, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1969), 279-300.
9 The negotiation and purchase was done through the Treaty of Paris signed by Spain and the United States in December 19, 1898. Under the treaty, Spain also ceded Puerto Rico to the United States and relinquished control over Cuba. See Renato Constantino, The Philippines: A Past Revisited (Pre-Spanish - 1941) (Quezon City: by the author, 1975), 219. Between 1898 to 1914, the U.S. forces killed 1.4 million Filipinos.
10 Davianna Pomaika'i-McGregor, "1889-1998: Rethinking the U.S. In Paradise," Rethinking the U.S. in Paradise Newsletter 1, no. 1 (July 1998): 1, 3.
11 Regina M. Schwartz, The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1997).
12 Ibid., 5-6.
13 Ibid.
14 The postmodern approach of deconstruction has been espoused by Jacques Derrida.
15 Michel Focault, Power/Knowledge, trans. Colin Gordon (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), 81.
16 Madan Sarup, An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism, 2nd ed. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993), 74.
17 Martin Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977).
18 Ibid., 23-32.
19 Ibid., 86-88.
20 Flavius Josephus, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, trans. William Whiston, New Updated Edn. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987), 2.75. According to Josephus, a Roman governor named Varus has crucified two thousand Jews who were charged with sedition.
21 Ireneaus of Lyons, "The Refutation and Overthrow of the Knowledge Falsely So Called," in Early Christian Fathers, ed. Cyril C. Richardson (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 385.
22 Origen, "On Relation of God and Evil," in The Christian Theology Reader, ed. Alister E. McGrath (Oxford, UK and Cambridge, US: Blackwell, 1995), 96.
23 Saint Augustine, Sermons, ed. John E. O.S.A. Rotelle, trans. Edmund O.P. Hill, vol. III/4, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New Rochelle, New York: New City Press, 1992). Augustine, Sermons. Sermon 131.2. Cited in John Cavadini, "The Tree of Silly Fruit: Images of the Cross in St. Augustine," in The Cross in Christian Tradition: From Paul to Bonaventure, ed. Elizabeth A. Dreyer (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2000), 160-61.
24 Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 36.4. Cited in Cavadini, "The Cross in Christian Tradition," 152.
25 Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (London: Women's Press Ltd., 1975), 77.
26 Rita Nakashima Brock, Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power (New York: Crossroad, 1988), 94.
27 Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan (New York: Random House, 1995).
28 Darby Kathleen Ray, Deceiving the Devil: Atonement, Abuse and Ransom (Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1998), 127.
29 John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately after the Execution of Jesus (New York: Harper SanFrancisco, 1998), 541-45. See also Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World. Furthermore, in his book Wars of the Jews, Josephus wrote that beheading and crucifixion were common ways of punishing criminals or revels before and after the time of Jesus. A Roman governor named Varus, for example, has crucified two thousand Jesus charged with sedition. See Flavius Josephus, The Works of Josephus, 2.75.
30 Martin Luther, "Disputation at Heidelberg, 1518," in Luther: Early Theological Works, ed. James Atkinson, The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), 277-79.
René Girard, Violence and the Sacred, trans. Patrick Gregory (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1977).
31 René Girard, The Scapegoat, trans. Yvonne Freccero (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1989).
32 René Girard, The Scapegoat, trans. Yvonne Freccero (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1989).
33 Pinay is a colloquial term for Filipina, feminine form of Filipino. It is used both positively and negatively. In the mid-1990’s, Oxford English Dictionary had an entry that define the word “Filipina” as “domestic helper, one who cleans the house, an entertainer, a nanny.” Protests forced the publishing company to recall copies of the dictionary from the shelves.
34 Aruna Gnanadason, ed., No Longer a Secret: The Church and Violence against Women (Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 1993), 50.
35 Kwok Pui-Lan, Introducing Asian Feminist Theology (Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 2000), 90.
36 Stella Baltazar, "Domestic Violence in Indian Perspective," in Women Resisting Violence: Spirituality for Life, ed. Mary John Mananzan, et al. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996), 59.
37 Elizabeth Joy, ed., Lived Realities: Faith Reflections on Gender Justice (Bangalore: CISRS Publications Trust for Joint Women's Programme, 1999).
38 Nakashima Brock, Journeys by Heart, 56.
39 Delores S. Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1993), 66.
40 Ibid., 67.
41 Ivone Gebara, Out of the Depths: Women's Experience of Evil and Salvation, trans. Anne Patrick Ware (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 120-21.
42 Ibid.
43 Choan-Seng Song, The Compassionate God (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1982), 141.
44 George Soares Prabhu, "The Jesus of Faith: A Christological Contribution to an Ecumenical Third-World Spirituality," in Spirituality of the Third World: A Cry for Life, ed. K.C. Abraham and Bernadette Mbuy-Beya (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1994), 159-60.
45 Virginia Fabella, "A Common Methodology for Diverse Christologies?," in With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology, ed. Virginia Fabella and Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1988).
46 Elizabeth A. Dreyer, "Afterword: 'Behold, the One You Seek Has Been Lifted Up'" in The Cross in Christian Tradition: From Paul to Bonaventure, ed. Elizabeth A. Dreyer (New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2000), 251.
47 Flora A. Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories: A Theology of Healing and Transformation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), 174.
48 Kathleen M. Sands, Escape from Paradise: Evil and Tragedy in Feminist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 32.
49 Wendy Farley, Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion: A Contemporary Theodicy (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995). See also Nel Noddings, Women and Evil (Berkeley, Ca.: University of California Press, 1989).
50 Johann Baptist Metz, A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity, trans. J. Matthew Ashley (New York and New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1998). Metz discusses the crucial place of memory in Christian faith and in society.
51 Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories, 174.
52 Ibid.
53 Nakashima Brock, Journeys by Heart, 100.
54 Noddings, Women and Evil, 33.
55 Gebara, Out of the Depths, 118. Gebara notes that “To cling to the cross of Jesus as the major symbol of Christianity ultimately affirms the path of suffering and male martyrdom as the only way to salvation and to highlight injustice toward women and humanity. All the suffering of women over the centuries of history would be deemed useless by such a theology of history.”

 

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