Sun Cross

Circles feature a lot in Christian images, but the circle is a common and popular shape in many art forms, not necessarily depicting the Sun. We see lots of straight lines in Christianity too. The cross is usually two straight beams, and from a young age we are told to 'keep on the path of life that goes straight¹'. If we look at the Sun image as just a bright circle, then we can easily debunk some of the Christian Sun-worshipping ideas:

Halo

The halo for example, was never intended to be a sun. The word comes from the Greek halos, which means the ring of light shown around the Sun, not the Sun itself. The word was borrowed for the name of the light, real or imaginary, appearing around a holy person. Artists have used this to represent the spiritual light from holy people "The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."². (See also Halo Cross)

Communion wafer

The communion wafer is round because baking a round biscuit is easier than any other shape - just mix the ingredients, plop the mixture on a tray, and bake. It's only when space is a premium do we shape the mixture into squares. Roundness became a natural shape for bread, biscuits and cakes. And they look nice on round plates.

Church dome

Church buildings have many rounded features because, like the biscuit, round is easier and stronger. When man first began building homes, he found a round hut was stronger and easier to build than a square structure. When the village ran out of space, square houses began to appear. Roundness became a natural shape for buildings.

Monstrance

The monstrance is an important item in the Catholic Church since it displays the sacred Eucharistic Host. Earlier (medieval) vessels looked nothing like a sun; they were elaborate tabernacles or shrines. But by the fifteenth century, churches decided it was better to have smaller, less elaborate vessels, that would focus the eye better to the Sacrament. Thus the sunburst was chosen as a 'look here' design. So if the monstrance 'proves' that Christians (and Catholics in particular) are really worshipping the sun, this is something that only began in the fifteenth century.

Salvation Army flag

The Salvation Army, in terms of grandeur and liturgical finery, is about as far removed from the Catholic Church as you can get (although they do have their own significant number of ceremonial customs). The sun emblem on their flag represents the fire of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, they don't even call this part of the flag a 'sun'; they call it a 'star' and have done since the Salvation Army started work in India, in deference to the Indian Parsees who regard the Sun as sacred.

Jesuit IHS symbol

Yes, the Jesuits use the Sun as the symbol of Jesus Christ. The Jesuits are pretty conservative on cosmological issues and like all Christians, they believe that Christ is the Light and the Life. So why not depict this using an object we are all familiar with? Their choice of the Sun is appropriate: When Jesus appeared before his disciples, "his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light."³. The Sun is used to remind us of the glory of Christ.

And of course there is the homophone 'the Sun' and 'the Son' (Jesus), the Light of the world.

Sunday is the day Christians set work aside so they can worship and we must thank old Egyptian astrology for naming this day for us. They identified seven planets and named the greatest of these Sun. Each day was named after a planet and the first day of the week, according to the Jews, was labelled after the greatest planet, the Sun. Hence we have Sunday. Saturday became the seventh day for the Jews, and that was their day of rest (Sabbath).

The purpose of having a rest day each week was to enable the body to recharge itself for another week's labour. At the same time, man could refresh his spiritual body, by spending the day in worship. Christians decided the first day of the week would be appropriate for their Sabbath perhaps because Christ's resurrection took place on Sunday⁴ which became known as the Lord's Day. Sunday became the day to celebrate the Eucharist⁵. It also gave Christians the advantage of not following a Jewish tradition of a Saturday Sabbath. (Possibly for similar reasons, the goom at a Christian wedding stands to the right of his bride, whereas Jewish gooms follow Psalm 45:9 and stand to the left. See also wedding ring finger)