What does the cross, both as a historical event and a symbol of religious discourse, tell us about human beings? Brian Gregor draws together a hermeneutics of the self--through Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Taylor--and a theology of the cross--through Luther, Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and Jüngel. He offers a bold and original view of what philosophical anthropology might look like if it took the cross seriously instead of breaking it down into competing philosophical concepts.