Why the Cross?: Divine Friendship and the Power of Justice

In this book, Ligita Ryliskyte addresses what is arguably the most important and profound question in systematic theology: What does it mean for humankind to be saved by the cross? Offering a constructive account of the atonement that avoids pitting God's saving love against divine justice, she provides a biblically-grounded and philosophically disciplined theology of the cross that responds to the exigencies of postmodern secular culture. Ryliskyte draws on Bernard J. F. Lonergan's development of the Augustinian-Thomist tradition to argue that the justice of the cross concerns the orderly communication and diffusion of divine friendship. It becomes efficacious in the dynamic order of the emergent universe through the transformation of evil into good out of love. Showing how inherited theological traditions can be transposed in new contexts, Ryliskyte's book reveals a Christology of fundamental significance for contemporary systematic theology, as well as the fields of theological ethics and Christian spirituality.