The Cross of Christ (Classic Reprint): Studies in the History of Religion and the Inner Life of the Church - Couverture souple

Otto Zoeckler

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1330996992 ISBN 13 : 9781330996997

Editeur : Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Explore the enduring power of the Cross in Christian history and art. This scholarly volume traces how the symbol has shaped belief, worship, and practice from ancient times through the Middle Ages and beyond. It shows how the Cross moved from a grim instrument of punishment to a central source of hope, grace, and spiritual meaning for Christians across traditions.

The book surveys how the Cross inspired hymns, legends, and visual art, and it explains the debates, discoveries, and cultural shifts that kept it at the heart of church life. Readable yet rigorous, it connects theology, history, and culture to illuminate why this emblem continues to hold sway for believers and scholars alike.

- See how early Christian songs and legends helped frame the Cross as a symbol of redemption.
- Learn how art, relics, and church rituals reinforced its meaning across centuries.
- Understand the tension between sacred symbolism and external appearances in religious practice.
- Discover the cross’s role in shaping Christian thought, devotion, and mission.

Ideal for readers of religious history and art, this edition offers a clear view of the Cross’s central place in the life of the church.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Christianity, and for a right apprehension of highly important religious and social problems of the present day, can hardly remain long a thing unperceived. The cross as the emblem of Christianity universally, as the symbolic representation of the one great truth, out of which a multitude of truths may be developed, is only apparently on a level with a number of other religious emblems, the study of which can call forth no interest beyond that of an art-historical or liturgical examination. It may be that a false externalising, specially in the Church of the Middle A ges, has attached itself to the reverence manifested towards the cross. An exact and critical detailing of these superstitious extravagances and mystical playings of the imagination may more than once run the risk of producing a wearying or even repelling effect. Nevertheless there is inherent in this particular sign a stronger power of attraction than in any of the other symbols of Christianity. The externalising and corrupting influence upon the essence and life of our religion proceeding from it, from the time of Constantino and Helena, was followed in the period of the Reformation by a purifying and spiritualising process, which, equally with that process of degeneration, took its point of departure in the original expression of believing and enthusiastic attachment to the symbol of redemption. The Catholic devotion to the Cross, and the Evangelical preaching of the Cross, have their roots in the same soil. The implement of torture, transformed from an abhorred symbol of the curse into a rock of salvation for all peoples, is the common sacrificial altar of both, alike of that half of Christendom which has returned to the poor rudimentary ordinances of the world (G al. iv. 3; Col. ii. 8, 20), and of that which by virtue of a truly spiritual apprehension and embodiment of the idea of the cross
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Forgotten Books
• Date d'édition: 2018
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1330996992
• ISBN 13: 9781330996997
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 484
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