This book presents a unique effort to create a new understanding
of the Christian sign of the cross. At its core, it traces the
conscious and unconscious influence of this visual symbol through
time. What began as the crucifixion of a Jewish troublemaker in
Roman-occupied Judea in the first century eventually gave rise to a
broad spectrum of readings of the instrument used to accomplish
such a punishment, a cross.
The author argues that Jesus was a provocative, grandiose
masochist whose suffering and death initially signified redemption
for believers. This idea gradually morphed into a Christian sense
of freedom to persecute and wage war against non-believers,
however, as can be seen in the Crusades ("wars of the cross"). Many
believers even construed the murder of their savior as a crime
perpetrated by "the Jews," and this paranoid notion culminated in
the mass murder of European Jews under the sign of the Nazi hooked
cross (Hakenkreuz).
Rancour-Laferriere's book is expertly written and argued; it
will be readable to a large audience because it touches on many
areas of controversy, interest, and scholarship. The work is
critical, but not unfair; it employs psychoanalysis, art history
(the study of the symbol of the cross in works of art), religion
and religious texts, and world history generally. The interweaving
of these various themes is what gives this work its ability to draw
in readers--and will ultimately be what keeps the reader interested
through the conclusion.
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