Against the Crucifix

N.T. Wright, in What St. Paul Really Said (p. 46):

Crucifixes regularly appear as jewelry in today's post-Christian Western world, and the wearers are often blissfully unaware that their pretty ornament depicts the ancient equivalent, all in one, of the hangman's noose, the electric chair, the thumbscrew, and the rack. Or, to be more precise, something which combined all four but went far beyond them; crucifixion was such an utterly horrible thing that the very word was usually avoided in polite Roman society. Every time Paul spoke of it--especially when he spoke of it in the same breath of salvation, love, grace and freedom--he and his hearers must have been conscious of the slap in the face thereby administered to their normal expectation and sensibilities. Somehow, we need to remind ourselves of this every time Paul mentions Jesus' death, especially the mode of death.