The Cross in Christian Tradition: From Paul to Bonaventure

Front Cover
Elizabeth Dreyer
Paulist Press, 2000 - Religion - 262 pages
For the past two thousand years, the cross has been a powerful symbol of the Christian faith and an anchor of its symbol system. In this volume, a group of distinguished scholars delves into the theologies and spiritualities of the cross at select moments in the tradition. They examine biblical texts and commentaries, lectionaries, liturgical poetry, sermons, and theological spiritual treatises in: Paul, the early liturgy, Origen, Augustine and Bonaventure. Each chapter provides a window into how particular contexts influenced the interpretation of the cross and how the cross functioned in each unique historical moment. Originally presented at Saint Mary's College, these papers offer a fresh and distinctive approach to the literature on the cross. The authors' historical perspective points to the tradition as a transforming agent for theology and spirituality today. Contributors: - Elizabeth A. Dreyer - Jerome Murphy-O'Connor - Nathan D. Mitchell - Peter J. Gorday - John Cavadini Here is a book that will interest liturgists and Christian educators, university and seminary students and members of religious orders. Although scholarly in tone, can be read with profit by adult educated Christians as well. +

From inside the book

Contents

Even death on a cross
21
Washed Away by the Blood of God
51
The Cross That Spoke
72
Becoming Truly Human
93
The Martyrs Cross Origen and Redemption
126
The Tree of Silly Fruit
147
Jesus Death Is Real
169
A Condescending God
192
Mysticism Tangible through Metaphor
211
Behold the One you seek has been lifted
236
Index
259
Copyright

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Page 153 - Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Page 3 - For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Page 2 - I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Page 252 - The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Page 243 - We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
Page 41 - Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.
Page 38 - For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Page 123 - Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988); Deborah Sawyer, Women and Religion in the First Christian Centuries (London: Routledge, 1996).

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