Andre Gide was raised as a protestant. The narrator in "The Pastoral Symphony" is a protestant minister. The words are Gide's in 1919. Gide had many lives, one of them as a communist. He flirted with converting to Catholicism. In the end he kept the morality of Christianity without the resurrection. Gide's criticism of St. Paul went beyond what appears in "The Pastoral Symphony." St. Paul was responsible for the Cross, not the Crucifix, being the dominant early Christian symbol, Gide believed. I am interested in that; I wrote about it here a couple of years ago. I got it backwards apparently. I wrote, I guess on instinct, that the Crucifix came first and then became "stylized" later. In quick research I did today Wikipedia cites to a scholar who says the Crucifix did not become common until the 5th Century A.D. I have not been able to verify today at all that St. Paul was responsible for the Cross however I accept that he was based on Gide. The difference between the Cross and the Crucifix is important for some Christians. The Crucifix is the "official" symbol of Roman Catholic Christianity. It is not for protestants. The Cross is the predominant image of Christianity among protestants.
Gide, though a protestant when he was a Christian, felt strongly with the Catholic church that the Crucifix was the "true" symbol of the religion. Gide "blamed" St. Paul for the Cross. Christianity took the suffering, and hence the meaning, out of the Crucifix, when it took the body of Christ off the Cross. I saw that, I wrote that too here. I thought the Cross would have helped "sell" Christianity more than the Crucifix would have. I wrote that on instinct alone too. I don't know if I'm right about that. Quick research today supports the squeamishness, I felt (on hunch) existed among early Christians about their "logo," but that would be the Cross, not the Crucifix. Anyway, Gide all of his lives felt strongly that Christ had to be put back up on the Cross; Catholicism feels strongly that Christ belongs on the Cross. I don't feel strongly about it.
Image: www.bloodofjesus.com
Gide, though a protestant when he was a Christian, felt strongly with the Catholic church that the Crucifix was the "true" symbol of the religion. Gide "blamed" St. Paul for the Cross. Christianity took the suffering, and hence the meaning, out of the Crucifix, when it took the body of Christ off the Cross. I saw that, I wrote that too here. I thought the Cross would have helped "sell" Christianity more than the Crucifix would have. I wrote that on instinct alone too. I don't know if I'm right about that. Quick research today supports the squeamishness, I felt (on hunch) existed among early Christians about their "logo," but that would be the Cross, not the Crucifix. Anyway, Gide all of his lives felt strongly that Christ had to be put back up on the Cross; Catholicism feels strongly that Christ belongs on the Cross. I don't feel strongly about it.
Image: www.bloodofjesus.com
