THE CROSS BEFORE CONSTANTINE by Bruce W. Longenecker ( 9781451490305 )

Item Details

Title:

THE CROSS BEFORE CONSTANTINE
THE EARLY LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN SYMBOL

By:

Bruce W. Longenecker

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£25.99

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£23.39

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10% off

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£2.60

ISBN 10:

1451490305

ISBN 13:

9781451490305

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Publisher:

FORTRESS PRESS,U.S.

Pub. date:

27 July, 2015

Pages:

244

Description:

Bruce W. Longenecker presents a variety of material artifacts to illustrate that Christians made use of the cross as a visual symbol of their faith long before Constantine appropriated it to consolidate his power in the fourth century. The cross served as a visual symbol of commitment to a living deity in a dangerous world.

Synopsis:

This book brings together, for the first time, the relevant material evidence demonstrating Christian use of the cross prior to Constantine. Bruce W. Longenecker upends a longstanding consensus that the cross was not a Christian symbol until Constantine appropriated it to consolidate his power in the fourth century. Longenecker presents a wide variety of artifacts from across the Mediterranean basin that testify to the use of the cross as a visual symbol by some pre-Constantinian Christians. Those artifacts interlock with literary witnesses from the same period to provide a consistent and robust portrait of the cross as a pre-Constantinian symbol of Christian devotion. The material record of the pre-Constantinian period illustrates that Constantine did not invent the cross as a symbol of Christian faith,- for an impressive number of Christians before Constantine's reign, the cross served as a visual symbol of commitment to a living deity in a dangerous world.

Publication:

Imprint:

Fortress Press,U.S.

Returns:

Returnable

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