The ideas in this book grew out of my little "university" in mud and grass houses during long African evenings alone on safari. In the light of kerosene lamps, often under mosquito nets, I studied the soul-stretching works of my mentors, longing to be able to communicate these concepts so enriching to my own spiritual life in language clear enough for African ears.
The result was a series of studies on the cross, presented to congregations in Uganda and Kenya, based entirely on Scripture. From them this little book eventually emerged.
I owe much to that kind Providence which appointed me those quiet years of tuition in Africa. There I learned to sense a need for a clearer understanding of the cross. This hunger was deepened as I had opportunity to peruse unhurriedly the writings of thoughtful authors of previous generations like Alexander Bruce, George Matheson, C. S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, and H. Wheeler Robinson. They led me to the Bible, which was all I could use as a teaching aid in East Africa. Intensive conversations with thoughtful African pastors and teachers often helped me put these concepts to the acid test of the African pulpit. If any idea in my pages should bring enrichment to the heart of a reader, I am sure that somehow its origins go back to others long before me.
Robert J. Wieland