Crucifix

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For other uses, see Crucifix (disambiguation).

A crucifix amidst the cornfields near Mureck in rural Styria, Austria

A handheld crucifix

A crucifix in front of the Holy Spirit Church in Košice, Slovakia

A crucifix is a cross with a representation of Jesus' body, or corpus. It is a principal symbol of the Christian religion. It is primarily used in the Catholic Church, certain Lutheran churches, Orthodox churches, and the Anglican church, and emphasizes Christ's sacrifice—his death by crucifixion. On some crucifixes a skull and crossbones are shown below the corpus, reminding us that Golgotha (Calvary) meant "skull". It was probably called "Golgotha" because it was a burial-place, or possibly because of a legend that the place of Jesus' crucifixion was also the burial place of Adam.

The standard, four-pointed Latin crucifix consists of an upright stand and a crosspiece to which the sufferer's arms were nailed. The Eastern Orthodox crucifix includes two additional crossbars: the shorter nameplate, to which INRI was affixed; and the shorter stipes, to which the feet were nailed, which is angled upward toward penitent thief St. Dismas (to the viewer's left) and downward toward impenitent thief Gestas (to the viewer's right). It is thus eight-pointed. The corpora of Eastern Orthodox crucifixes tend to be two-dimensional icons that show Jesus as already dead, as opposed to the depictions of the still-suffering Jesus that can be found in some other Churches.

Among Protestant denominations, some prefer to depict the cross without the corpus in order to emphasize the resurrection or because the image of Christ's death is too intense while others claim that including the corpus is idolatry. Some Protestants with more extreme views even assert that portraying the body of Jesus on the cross is to profess that Jesus is not yet risen, though this is of course not what the various churches which use the symbol teach.

However, there are both Catholics and Protestants who also believe that a crucifix bears more meaning than a plain cross, not forgetting that the cross was primarily a torture instrument in the past whereas a crucifix shows that it is not "any other cross" than the cross of Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, many Protestants unexposed to other denominations of Christianity generally receive a shock when they see a crucifix for the first time upon entering a Catholic church or home, especially since most Catholic homes place a crucifix on/above the door or somewhere in the front of the house. (Such crucifixes are also generally larger and with more detail.)

Among Catholics and Protestants a third type of depiction of the body on the cross is what might be called a "resurrection cross" or "resifix" depicting a triumphant risen Christ (clothed in robes, rather than stripped as for his execution) with arms raised, appearing to rise up from the cross, sometimes accompanied by "rays of light".

A crucifix is often worn on a necklace as an item of jewelery, or is attached to a rosary. It can be made out of various metals, wood, or even plastic.

Catholics will normally ask their priest to bless a crucifix and place it in their home as a reminder that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

A controversial study by sociologists Reade and Palmer (2005) concerning tacit religious beliefs and attitudes among white Northern Americans produced evidence indicating that the popularity of the crucifix maybe due to the fact that as a piece of iconoclastic imagery it is most apt at being relevant to the demographic that tends to idolise Jesus. In their study, from a sample of three thousand Christian and Protestant women over eighty percent had what they termed as "problematic periods" and just under ten percent described their ovulations as "painful" as well as "accompanied with feelings of shame". When asked if the crucifix held different meaning for them when they were ovulating over fifty percent said that it did agreeing with the statement "it is appropriate that white men suffer when I am having my period". When these women were not ovulating and in church over forty percent said they focused less on Jesus and more on the bloodless Virgin Mary and said they felt feelings of "affinity, sisterhood and serenity".

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Christian symbolism
INRI
Rood