Images of the Crucifixion speak in different ways to Native Americans, to the Dalits of India and to the Copts of Egypt. But as Christians across the world prepare to celebrate Easter, all find in the Cross an image that transforms their understanding of suffering

Christians in Europe and North America have a very similar visual impression of the Crucifixion, based on two millennia of shared artistic representations. These have changed over time, but the accumulated visual image is still often the familiar “white Christ” on the Cross. But when we see how the Crucifixion is portrayed globally, we realise the “Word made flesh” can be portrayed in ways that transcend boundaries of ethnicity.

Viking portrayals of Christ bound like Odin, or Anglo-Saxon ones in which he mounts the Cross as a warrior facing battle, show that even in Western Europe the picture of the Crucifixion has been far from straightforward. But since the European heritage (for all its internal complexity) has often dominated the story of the Cross, the examples we will explore are from sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and South India. They remind us that this story has been formed by many voices, and the conversation continues to provoke and challenge us today.

The Cross appears on a coin for the first time in the Aksumite Kingdom, in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, in the reign of King Ezana II (320s-c.360). Alongside Constantine the Great of Rome and Tiridates of Armenia, Ezana was one of the first rulers to convert to Christianity. Ethiopian processional crosses – usually very intricately decorated with numerous crosses included within the design – continue to build on this ancient African heritage today. From Ethiopia, the African-derived form of the Cross spread into other areas of the continent.