When you are reading the New York Times, and you see the headline, “A Hot Accessory, at the Intersection of Faith and Culture,” it makes you click. The story was how cross necklaces are suddenly being seen on influencers, pop stars and White House staff. And just about everywhere (or on everyone) else.

A cross necklace is nothing new, of course. But in our post-Christian world, seeing them come back in vogue – and even as a means of expressing faith or seeking community with others of like faith – is. Of course, it is not always a statement of faith. Chappel Roan wore an oversized cross to the MTV Video Music Awards, and one could be seen dangling from the neck of Sabrina Carpenter in her music video “Please Please Please.” Neither would be expected to be in a church this weekend.

But for many, that is exactly what is meant to be conveyed. As the New York Times notes, “Across TikTok, young Christian women have been sharing the meaning behind their own cross necklaces, saying they help cultivate a sense of belonging and connection with others.”

To be sure, if you were to ask anyone what the central symbol of the Christian faith is today, they would undoubtedly say, “the cross.”

It wasn’t, however, to the first and earliest Christians. The cross as a symbol came onto the scene later, blossoming during the medieval era, often as reliquaries holding bits of wood from the True Cross. Called “speaking” reliquaries, the idea was that if the reliquary was to hold the bone of a hand, it was best to make your reliquary in the shape of a hand; if it was the heart of a saint, it was best to house it in a reliquary the shape of a heart.

Fragments of the True Cross were put into small crucifixes to represent what the reliquary held. But early on, no one tried to put forward the cross itself as the symbol of the Christian faith.

And for good reason.

It would have been like putting forward the image of an electric chair or a hangman’s noose to honor a martyr in our day. The cross was not a work of art, much less something hung around your neck. It was a symbol of death and torture. Yes, Jesus died on a cross, but that didn’t elevate the cross to anything more than a dark reminder.

So, what was the prominent Christian symbol? When you survey early Christian art, and specifically reliquaries and tombs, it is the name of Christ Himself. Or at least the first two letters.

The X is actually a reflection of the Greek letter chi and the P is the Greek letter rho. Together, chi-rho was the first two letters of Christ in the Greek language. Often superimposed on each other, they became the symbol for Christ and, as a result, the Christian faith.

If the cross was involved at all, it was portrayed with the chi-rho situated prominently at the top, reflecting how the cross had been stripped of its associations with humiliation and instead had become a symbol of triumph. It was Christ’s triumph over and through the cross, not the cross itself, that was the point.

I don’t expect this to eclipse the cross necklace any time soon. But it might be more culturally “identifying” if it did.

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