Dr. David G. Buttrick’s book, “The Mystery and The Passion,” is a homiletic exploration of the Gospel traditions regarding Jesus’ death and resurrection. Dr. Buttrick examines the familiar texts that tell of Passion and glory. He provides a harmony of Synoptic texts, using the sequence and the numbering system provided by Huck’s Synopsis, employed in Gospel Parallels. He is not very concerned with providing in-depth historical excursuses of the texts, as his aim is to get at the theological substance of the texts; or the gospel to be preached.

Dr. Buttrick encourages preachers today to preach the same message that was articulated by the prophets and the apostles. He exhorts us to hold up the cross and to turn to the Resurrection as a witness to our hope in the promised power of God. We, preachers of the 21st century church, “Like many of the first Christian theological explorers, investigate God’s activity, tracing mysterious movements of grace through all human time and space,” which allows us to preach the gospel and explain theology at both profound and practical level.