The Old Rugged Cross: A History of the Atonement in Popular Christian Devotion

A lot has been said about the atonement theology of the theologians but what of ordinary believers and their church leaders? What if anything have they done with penal substitution or with Christus Victor? How if at all have these doctrinal approaches helped ordinary Christians to live more devoted lives or lead good church services? Ben Pugh takes the temperature of the church at various points in its history right up to the present day noting particular emphases that can be detected in various expressions of personal and corporate faith--whether these be hymns sermons magazines or devotional texts. The book aims not only to describe what the implied atonement theologies of the church have in reality been but also to explore why these have taken the forms that they have. This exploration will shed some fresh light on current debates building on the findings of the authors earlier work Atonement Theories: A Way through the Maze. This is a book about the cross like none you have ever read. Ben Pugh takes us on a fascinating eye-opening tour of some key sights in the history of popular Christian devotion to the cross. Here we witness the development of crucicentric practices such as the Eucharist making the sign of the cross following stations of the cross veneration of splinters from the cross the cult of martyrdom the performance of Passion plays medieval passion mysticism as well as the Evangelical crucicentric piety of Moravians and the Wesleys the sanctifying cross of the holiness movement the victorious delivering blood of Pentecostalism and the gushing blood of Mel Gibsons Passion of the Christ. This is the cross as experienced in the lived experience of ordinary believers past and present; the cross as prayed sung painted acted meditated upon and clung to. Highly recommended. --Robin A. Parry author of The Biblical Cosmos and (with Andrew Walker) Deep Church Rising Ben Pugh is Lecturer in Theology at Cliff College UK. He is the author of Atonement Theories: A Way through the Maze (2014).