It seems counterintuitive to suggest that understanding and developing a theology of the cross is pivotal for a theological response to a secular culture. Is a theology of the cross not the least convenient starting point for addressing the burning question of human flourishing, with which a secular culture is deeply concerned (and rightly so)? Furthermore, even if one would grant that the horrors of the twentieth century explain the focus on the cross by figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Johann Baptist Metz, it is not immediately obvious how the cross is relevant in the current age of self-sufficient efficiency, omni-tolerant pluralism, and globalized consumerism. Perhaps it would still be within the bounds of contemporary theological imagination to value the theology of the cross à la Metz, the prophet of dangerous memories that are subversive because they reveal to us the injustices that should not be.2 But is there a need or room for going beyond that?