What Does The Christian Cross Actually Mean? Exclusive Extract From New Book By Rowan Williams – Christian Today

When we go into a Christian place of worship, we expect to see a cross. And when crosses are removed from public places, such as crematoria or hospital chapels, we quite reasonably get rather indignant about it. But in the world in which Christianity began, a place of worship was the last place you would expect to see a cross. We can only begin to get some sense of what it might have felt like to encounter the symbol of a cross in the first couple of Christian centuries if we imagine coming into a church and being faced with a large picture of an electric chair or perhaps a guillotine.

Rowan Williams. Christian Today. 17 January 2017

2 thoughts on “What Does The Christian Cross Actually Mean? Exclusive Extract From New Book By Rowan Williams – Christian Today”

  1. Hi happy new year Phil, I am going to purchase this book , I am looking forward to reading it as a lent reflection. I look for a cross but if there is not one I look for a candle or sometimes a stained glass window or even an icon, but mostly a Bible. Many churches do not hand out Bibles as people arrive or even let people know Bibles are available, but I understand that language and literacy is an issue and the cross or a candle transcends all that.

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