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Journey to the Cross

Journey to the Cross
By Roger Ellsworth
Evangelical Press. 238 pages
ISBN 085234 397 3

Roger Ellsworth has produced an orthodox volume on the cross whose theology few will take exception to. The style is devotional and there is nothing much new in it to over-tax the grey matter - which may be deliberate.
The book's stated aim is to return its readers to the cross, to restore their sense of awe and wonder, to return them to their priorities and to fill them with assurance.
These aims are all very laudable, but are they achieved?
The trouble is that there are already some stunning books about the cross - and, for me, some of these others really do achieve these things. In that context, this book lacks the warmth of Denney and the theological exhaustiveness of Leon Morris (neither of which get a mention), but remains mercifully free of the modern tendency towards more incarnational theologies of the cross that other more modern books seem to have caught from sources like Moltmann.
One major quibble though, relates to the book's basic approach. I think it fair to say that this is systematic theology. I gain the impression that the author starts with theological propositions rather than texts of Scripture. The tendency therefore seems to be to use particular texts as hooks on which to hang theological propositions.
Some might think that an unfair criticism of a devotional work. Well, is it?
Devotional books tend to be read at a lower level of critical awareness than heavy theology, and bad Bible reading habits are therefore more readily formed out of sloppy exegetical practice in devotional than technical theological books.
Yes, texts are quoted at the beginnings of chapters in this book. Yes, in some of the chapters those texts are interacted with to some extent. But the systematic rather than the biblical framework dominates.

Simon Bowkett