{"product_id":"the-cross-before-constantine-432729","title":"The Cross Before Constantine","description":"This book brings together, for the first time, the relevant material evidence demonstrating Christian use of the cross prior to Constantine. Bruce W. Longenecker upends a longstanding consensus that the cross was not a Christian symbol until Constantine appropriated it to consolidate his power in the fourth century. Longenecker presents a wide variety of artifacts from across the Mediterranean basin that testify to the use of the cross as a visual symbol by some pre-Constantinian Christians. Those artifacts interlock with literary witnesses from the same period to provide a consistent and robust portrait of the cross as a pre-Constantinian symbol of Christian devotion. The material record of the pre-Constantinian period illustrates that Constantine did not invent the cross as a symbol of Christian faith,- for an impressive number of Christians before Constantine's reign, the cross served as a visual symbol of commitment to a living deity in a dangerous world.","brand":"Koorong","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51568328245535,"sku":"9781451490305","price":59.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0925\/8981\/8143\/files\/9781451490305_1107683.jpg?v=1769302336","url":"https:\/\/koorong.com\/products\/the-cross-before-constantine-432729","provider":"Koorong","version":"1.0","type":"link"}