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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Do we know when amulets (crosses or otherwise) are first used? I had the impression that crosses were marked for examples on the walls of the catacombs, and was taught that the fish was a 'secret' sign one could easily draw in the dust with ones staff as a means of identification and erase if necessary . . . but this is not my field of expertise. IŽd be interested to know about early examples of crosses as amulets. Meg ________________________________ From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture on behalf of Marjorie Greene Sent: Sat 9.1.2010 10:59 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [M-R] Resurrection Bodies/Cross medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture ". We should probably be wearing, instead of little crosses, little hollowed empty caves." The earliest Christians made that decision for us, I'm afraid. The fish and the cross sans corpus were the earliest symbols of the followers of Jesus and the earliest depiction of Jesus himself (correction if necessary, please) is that of the Good Shepherd. I'm not sure what a hollowed empty cave would look like, scratched or drawn on a wall, other than a zero or the letter O. Fashioning an amulet or pendant of same would have been rather difficult for our forebears. I can't quite turn the cross into a phallic symbol without an impossible stretch of my imagination, especially since it isn't really a symbol but a representation of an historically, empirically verifiable device. Actually, the very use of the cross as a designation of the Christian faith is a potent affirmation of the Resurrection. For without the latter, the former would just be a tree with a crossbeam. And no one would wear that around his/her neck. Without the Resurrection, we would not glory in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ as recommended by Saint Paul (another correction if necessary, please). MG Marjorie Greene http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/ ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html