Inhabiting the Cruciform God

Several—OK, I just checked and it was over 6 months ago!—Nick Norelli mentioned a book, calling it the most quotable book of the year. It was the next book on my booklist at the time, but got bumped multiple times. I recently finished Inhabiting the Cruciform God, and I have to concur. I am going to extract some stuff for the next week or so, but this is just barely skimming the surface. You would serve yourself well to buy/rent/beg/borrow a copy.

In a careful analysis of the text to determine the validity of this theological interpretation, the question arises—answered affirmatively by a line of exegetes from C.F.D. Moule to N.T. Wright, Gerald Hawthorne, Markus Brockmuehl, and Stephen Fowler—whether the first words of thepoem should be translated “Because he was in the form of God” rather than “Although he was in the form of God.” This chapter, consisting of an exegetical explanation followed by theological reflection, contends that Phil. 2:6-11, as Paul's master story, is (in part) about the counterintuitive, essentially kenotic—or cruciform—character of God. More specifically, we will argue that the Greek phrase en morphe theou hyparchon in Phil. 2:6 (“being in the form of God”) has two levels of meaning, a surface structure and a deep structure (to borrow terms from transformational grammar), one concessive and one causative: “although he was in the form of God” and “because he was in the form of God.” These two translations, which, as we will see, are really two sides of the same coin, correspond to two aspects of Paul's understanding of the identity of the one true God (or “divine identity”) and manifested in this text: its counterintuitive character (“although”) and its cruciform character (“because”).—Inhabiting the Cruciform God, p. 10

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This seems to fit well with I Corinthians 1: God's wisdom is foolishness to mankind. I like it, and all the more since it appears to be based on sound exegesis :)
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