I'm not buying it, either figuratively, or literally buying those books that they are trying to sell on that Unitarian WWW site.
It is right to the fore as a core element of the religion in the Nicene Creed, adopted in the 4th century:
σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ παθόντα, καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Πατρὸς,
#Unitarianism downplays Jesus.
Consider the source. They're promoting #Unitarianism. *Of course* they'd like Jesus to be considered only of secondary importance.
But it's simply not true, and analysis of artworks misses the fact that the populations can *speak* and *sing*. The Credo has been spoken+sung for a millennium and a half.
One can argue that trinitarianism makes no logical sense. But *this* is arguing that people have historically not believed it. They most definitely have.
Actually, the proposition that Jesus is of only secondary importance is a fundamental Unitarian thing, and that's UUWorld.
But #Unitarianism is a comparatively small and comparatively recent ("only" 5 centuries!) sect. They're trying to sell you the ahistoric idea that Unitarianism was mainstream #Christianity, 11 centuries before Unitarianism appeared.
It isn't now, and it wasn't then.
In the mainstream, the Crucifixion is and has been very central, and the Resurrection also.
For starters: the fact that what later became the three major sects of #Christianity have formally stated it outright as their creed since the Council of Nicaea.
Churchgoing Anglicans (for example) say it on a weekly (if not greater) basis. One Anglican translation is:
"For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven"
Another is in BCP Morning Prayer.
Talking of the BCP, then see the Articles of Religion in the BCP.
Article 2 explicitly expounds the central belief in the Crucifixion. Article 4 expounds, similarly upon the central belief in the Resurrection.
Even the Anglicans (-: have been outright saying that this is an important part their core belief since the 16th century. The people that they broke away from have been outright saying it for a lot longer.
Then there are scads of Christian theologians from the mainstream sects all banging on about this as their belief. Not just Saint Augustine alone, by any means.
There was this cat named Thomas Aquinas, for one. Questions 50 to 59 in Part 3 of the Summa Theologiae are all about the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.
Their idea that "Christians did not focus on the death of Jesus" is absurd even with only passing knowledge of the theological heavyweights.
It was *read to them*. It is a mistake to think that illiteracy equals ignorance. People can pass along stuff by speaking, too.
Christians have spoken and sung the Credo for 1.5 millennia, as I said. They still read it out loud today.
All of the Anglicans stand up during Morning Prayer and recite it out loud. It has been set to music hundreds of times.
Hell, there's still, in today's literate world, hanging around the encouragement to *memorize* this stuff.
On the other hand, we have this ahistoric UUWorld thesis based upon art.
Aside from the wholesale destruction of art by various people meaning that what survives is far from comprehensive, #Christianity is formally an aniconistic religion.
One could, after all, use the same methodology of inspecting what's on the walls of mosques to argue that Moslems do not believe in Allah.
It's not good scholarship & it's trying to push a historical revisionist thesis.
Probertd8
JdeBP