Furthermore, these two axes of Augustinianism (immaterial heavenly destiny and actualized divine sovereignty) have produced, broadly speaking, the deviant expressions of praxis found in monasticism and Christendom. We naturally seek to be “imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1). If the mission of God is ultimately to escape from materiality, then we will conform our lives to this end, and monasticism is the most logical response. Taking up the cross (cf. Luke 9:23 and par.) within Christoplatonism is thus assumed to be asceticism in its various forms, and Simeon Stylites (c. 390–459), who spent nearly forty years atop a desert pillar, would be the exemplar heavenly destiny disciple. 

Conversely, bearing the cross, according to Christendom, is understood in terms of denying yourself for the cause of extending the sovereignty of God over the earth, as exemplified in the Crusades when banners displaying the cross led the Christian armies in holy war against the infidels. Dominionists to this day continue to receive the same false vision of Constantine concerning the cross: “In this sign, conquer!” (in Latin, In hoc signo vinces). I believe both of these distortions are at odds with the cruciform-apocalyptic mission of God, and they militate against a true expression of the cross, in both word and deed, regarding the present mercy of God in light of the coming severity of God.  - John P. Harrigan, the Gospel of Christ Crucified, p.86