Jesus through the Centuries,Jaroslav Pelikan

Jaroslav Pelikan is a former Professor of History at Yale University. His books dealing with the history of  the Eastern Church and the development of Christian dogmas   help one to understand the nature and growth of the Church through the centuries.
Jesus through the Centuries traces the meaning and history of the different titles attributed to Christ.
He starts the book with the statement that 'regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries."
With regards to Tradition and Scripture, he says; "Everyone must acknowledge that Christian tradition had precedence , chronologically and even logically , over Christian scripture; for there was a tradition of the Chruch  before ever there was a New Testament."
"By the time the materials of the oral tradition found their way into the written form, they had passed through the life and experience of the church."(p.10)
Jesus as a Rabbi:
One of the most familiar forms of teaching is that of question and answer(130

The most typical form of the teachings of Jesus was the parable(13)
Cross:
Augustine : "That very cross on which he was derided, he has now imprinted on the brows of kings"
Constantine's dream of the cross as sign of his victory in the battle of the Milvian Bridge of Oct.28,312.Cross on the shields of every soldier.((51)
The dedication of rebuilt city of Byzantium as Constantinople , often called the New Rome on May 11,330--the result of his desire to establish a truly Christian capital to replace the pagan capital of Old Rome(55)
Christ Crucified(95)
What was said of the thane of Cawdor in macbeth was true preeminently of jesus: "Nothing in his life /Became like the leaving of it."
Tertullian declares that  at every forward step and movement , at every going in out, we mark upon our forehead the sign 9of the cross)....
the cross was beleived to possess all of this victorious power because it had been the instrument for the greatest victory of them all, the cosmic victory of the power  of God...
the very shape of the cross symbolized its comprehnsion of all the ways of God, the vertical and the horizontal bars representing the height and breadth of the universe...(105)
the cross was at the same time the surpreme proff  that the will and way of god would eventually prevail..As joseph said to his brothers in Egypt,"you meant evil  against me..but God meant it for good..(105)
the fundamental meaning of the wisdom of the cross was contianed in the words of jesus in the Gospel of John, :"Greater love has no man than this..."15:13)
True love was self-sacrificing love, and god had demonstrated it uniquely by giving up his own Son to the death of te cross.