The Sign of the Cross: The Gesture, the Mystery, the History

Publication Data: Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2010
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: xx + 152
Dimensions (l × w × h): 20.3 cm × 13.8 cm × 1.2 cm
ISBN-13: 978‒1‒55725‒874‒8

   
Andreas Andreopoulos

“Among the items that had had ‘long-continued observance,’ even at the dawn of Christian history, was the sign of the cross. ‘In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross,’ Tertullian wrote. It seems that the sign of the cross was such an entrenched element of Christian practice that a believer would not consider refraining from it. Tertullian believed it to be universal, and already ancient in AD 204.”
—“Foreword”

CONTENTS

Foreword
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
   Experiencing the Sign of the Cross
CHAPTER TWO
   The Sign of the Cross: Its History
CHAPTER THREE
   The Need for Symbols and Signs
CHAPTER FOUR
   A Prayer to Christ
CHAPTER FIVE
   The Cosmic Cross
Acknowledgments
Further Suggested Reading
Notes
Index