Communities of the Cross: Christa and the Communal Nature of Redemption

Abstract

This is a study of the development of Christian symbolic use of the Cross. Early depictions were anastasic, the empty cross symbolizing the resurrection and hiding the manner of Jesus’ death. As the Christian community itself became more violent, and first practiced and then justified the practice of war, the Crucifix showed Christ on the Cross increasingly graphically. The writer compares this with a set of images in and around the chapel at Central American University in San Salvador. The images record a memory of suffering and terror. The article ends by locating the experience of writing about these images in the context of global grass-roots protest against the war in Iraq.