Five Roads to the Cross

Etienne Charpentier, author of the brilliant study books How to Read the Old Testament and How to Read the New Testament, was tragically killed in a road accident in November 1981, before he could finish this book, so it was completed by a colleague. In it, we find anew attempt to enrich the ancient devotional practice of following the traditional Stations of the Cross. Some problems with this devotion as often practised are that it includes episodes, like St Veronica's veil and the three occasions on which Jesus falls, which are pious legend rather than based on the gospels; that it mixes indiscriminately features from the four different gospel traditions; and that it is excessively focussed in suffering and death to the exclusion of other perspectives on the passion. In the new approach, each 'road' to the cross begins with the Transfiguration and then follows through the most distinctive scenes from the passion as told in each gospel. There is then a concluding meditation on the resurrection of Jesus, which gives meaning to his life. A brief introduction to the book shows how the meditations may be used in a parish, but they are equally suitable for private devotion. And for those who would like one set of Stations of the Cross in more traditional form, the final road' uses the traditional stations, accompanied by a selection of texts taken from the Fourth Gospel.