The Suffering Church
Mere Christianity Is Fundamentally Cruciform
One of the prayers of the First Hour of the Orthodox Daily Office begins: “The universe offers you the God-bearing martyrs as the first fruits of creation, O Lord and Creator.” Tertullian’s oft-quoted line comes to mind, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” In both it is suggested that the martyr is the one closest to the essence of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Christian martyrs are likened to seed or first fruits—both the beginning and the end of the life in Christ. They are the fertile signs of the coming kingdom of God.
A Christian writer and journalist recently asked me what I thought was necessary for the renewal of Christianity in the West. I answered, a return to a cruciform faith, by which I meant an embrace of the martyrs not only of our Christian past but also of our present age.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
James M. Kushiner is the Director of Publications for The Fellowship of St. James and the former Executive Editor of Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on ecumenism from the online archives
31.4—July/August 2018
Labels & the Ecumenism of Discipleship by James M. Kushiner
more from the online archives
33.1—January/February 2020
on the Consequences of One Birth Before Roe v. Wade by Craig Kellogg Galer
24.1—January/February 2011
Marriage Thrives in Reality, Not in Our Dreams by Nathan Schlueter
28.5—Sept/Oct 2015
on Our Sacred Duty to Teach the Devil to Death by Marcus Johnson
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
