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Ancient Christian Martyrdom
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Book Synopsis Ancient Christian Martyrdom by : Candida R. Moss
Download or read book Ancient Christian Martyrdom written by Candida R. Moss and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using perspectives on death from ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish traditions, a theology professor discusses the history of Christian martyrdom and challenges the traditional understanding of the spread of Christianity.
Book Synopsis The Myth of Persecution by : Candida Moss
Download or read book The Myth of Persecution written by Candida Moss and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.
Book Synopsis Early Christian Martyr Stories by : Bryan M. Litfin
Download or read book Early Christian Martyr Stories written by Bryan M. Litfin and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal narratives are powerful instruments for teaching, both for conveying information and for forming character. The martyrdom accounts preserved in the literature of early Christianity are especially intense and dramatic. However, these narratives are not readily available and are often written in intimidating prose, making them largely inaccessible for the average reader. This introductory text brings together key early Christian martyrdom stories in a single volume, offering new, easy-to-read translations and expert commentary. An introduction and explanatory notes accompany each translation. The book not only provides a vivid window into the world of early Christianity but also offers spiritual encouragement and inspiration for Christian life today.
Book Synopsis I Am A Christian by : Anthony P. Schiavo, Jr.
Download or read book I Am A Christian written by Anthony P. Schiavo, Jr. and published by Arx Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Jesus never existed." "The Bible is a book of fairy tales." "Accounts of Christian persecution are fables." Christians of today face ridiculous claims of this type on a regular basis. These charges gain traction in the modern world because the average person has practically no knowledge of the Church's ancient past. I Am A Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution from the Ancient Sources aims to remedy this deficiency. The works collected in this book represent some of the most trustworthy first-hand accounts of the triumphs and travails of the early Church that have survived antiquity. These include several authentic transcripts of Roman legal proceedings against Christians, along with obscure but fascinating historical works that are unfamiliar to even the most informed Christians of today. In several cases, readers will be presented with the actual words of the martyrs themselves. In others, they will read accounts penned by eye-witnesses or authors writing within the living memory of the events themselves. Taken together, these works form a glorious record of early Christian zeal and fortitude in the face of aggressive state persecution. When reading them, one notices a common refrain: when questioned, the accused would cry out: “I am a Christian,” which was the equivalent of saying, “I am guilty as charged.” In an era when such an admission carried a death sentence, these authentic testimonies provide a convincing answer to modern skeptics who will find them as baffling as did the ancient Roman emperors, proconsuls and magistrates of nearly two millennia ago.
Book Synopsis Martyrdom and Memory by : Elizabeth Anne Castelli
Download or read book Martyrdom and Memory written by Elizabeth Anne Castelli and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilising a wide range of early sources, this title identifies the roots of the concept of Christian martyrdom, as lloking at how it has been expressed in events such as the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999.
Book Synopsis The Other Christs by : Candida R. Moss
Download or read book The Other Christs written by Candida R. Moss and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-24 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moss begins by tracing the theme of imitating Jesus through suffering in the literature of the Jesus movement and early church and its application in martyrdom literature. She demonstrates the importance of imitating the sufferings of Christ as a practice and ethos in the Jesus movement. She then proceeds to the interpretations of the martyr's death and afterlife, arguing against the dominant theory that the martyr's death was viewed as a sacrifice, and finding that in their post-mortem existence martyrs continue to be assimilated to Christ, closely resembling the exalted Christ as intercessors, judges, enthroned monarchs and banqueters.
Book Synopsis Ancient Christian Martyrdom by : Candida R. Moss
Download or read book Ancient Christian Martyrdom written by Candida R. Moss and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of martyrdom for the spread of Christianity in the first centuries of the Common Era is a question of enduring interest. In this innovative new study, Candida Moss offers a radically new history of martyrdom in the first and second centuries that challenges traditional understandings of the spread of Christianity and rethinks the nature of Christian martyrdom itself. Martyrdom, Moss shows, was not a single idea, theology, or practice: there were diverse perspectives and understandings of what it meant to die for Christ. Beginning with an overview of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish ideas about death, Moss demonstrates that there were many cultural contexts within which early Christian views of martyrdom were very much at home. She then shows how distinctive and diverging theologies of martyrdom emerged in different ancient congregations. In the process she reexamines the authenticity of early Christian stories about martyrs and calls into question the dominant scholarly narrative about the spread of martyrdom in the ancient world.
Book Synopsis Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy by : Geoffrey de Ste. Croix
Download or read book Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy written by Geoffrey de Ste. Croix and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-28 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together seven seminal papers by the great radical historian Geoffrey de Ste. Croix, who died in 2000, on early Christian topics, with an especial focus on persecution and martyrdom. Christian martyrdom is a topic which conjures up ready images of inhumane persecutors confronted by Christian heroes who perish for the instant but win the long-term battle for reputation. In five of these essays Ste. Croix scrutinizes the evidence to reveal the significant role ofChristian themselves, first as volunteer martyrs and later, after the triumph of Christianity in the early fourth century, as organizers of much more effective persecutions. A sixth essay pursues the question of the control of Christianity through a comprehensive study of the context for one of theChurch's most important and divisive doctrinal decisions, at the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451); the key role of the emperor and his senior secular officials is revealed, contrary to the prevailing interpretation of Church historians. Finally the attitudes of the early Church towards property and slavery are reviewed, to show the divide between the Gospel message and actual practice.
Book Synopsis Martyrdom and Noble Death by : Friedrich Avemarie
Download or read book Martyrdom and Noble Death written by Friedrich Avemarie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the fascinating phenomenon of noble death through pagan, Jewish and Christian sources. Today's society is uncomfortable with death, and willingly submitting to a violent and ostentatious death in public is seen as particularly shocking and unusual. Yet classical sources give a different view, with public self-sacrifice often being applauded. The Romans admired a heroic end in the battlefield or the arena, suicide in the tradition of Socrates was something laudable, and Christians and Jews alike faithfully commemorated their heroes who died during religious persecutions. The cross-cultural approach and wide chronological range of this study make it valuable for students and scholars of ancient history, religion and literature.
Book Synopsis The Early Martyr Narratives by : Eric Rebillard
Download or read book The Early Martyr Narratives written by Eric Rebillard and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2020-11-27 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Eusebius of Caesarea, who first compiled a collection of martyr narratives around 300, to Thierry Ruinart, whose Acta primorum martyrum sincera et selecta was published in 1689, the selection and study of early hagiographic narratives has been founded on an assumption that there existed documents written at the time of martyrdom, or very close to it. As a result, a search for authenticity has been and continues to be central, even in the context of today's secular scholarship. But, as Éric Rebillard contends, the alternative approach, to set aside entirely the question of the historical reliability of martyr narratives, is not satisfactory either. Instead, he argues that martyr narratives should be consider as fluid "living texts," written anonymously and received by audiences not as precise historical reports but as versions of the story. In other words, the form these texts took, between fact and fiction, made it possible for audiences to readily accept the historicity of the martyr while at the same time not expect to hear or read a truthful account. In The Early Martyr Narratives, Rebillard considers only accounts of Christian martyrs supposed to have been executed before 260, and only those whose existence is attested in sources that can be dated to before 300. The resulting small corpus contains no texts in the form of legal protocols, traditionally viewed as the earliest, most official and authentic records, nor does it include any that can be dated to a period during which persecution of Christians is known to have taken place. Rather than deduce from this that they are forgeries written for the sake of polemic or apologetic, Rebillard demonstrates how the literariness of the narratives creates a fictional complicity that challenges and complicates any claims of these narratives to be truthful.
Book Synopsis Divine Deliverance by : L. Stephanie Cobb
Download or read book Divine Deliverance written by L. Stephanie Cobb and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imprint -- Subvention -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Bodies in Pain: Ancient and Modern Horizons of Expectation -- 2. Text and Audience: Activating and Obstructing Expectations -- 3. Divine Analgesia: Painlessness in a Pain-Filled World -- 4. Whose Pain?: Pain as a Locus of Meaning in Christian Martyr Texts -- 5. Narratives and Counternarratives: Discourse and Early Christian Martyr Texts -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Book Synopsis Martyrdom and Rome by : G. W. Bowersock
Download or read book Martyrdom and Rome written by G. W. Bowersock and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-03 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise examination of the historical context of the earliest Christian martyrs in the Roman empire.
Book Synopsis Witness of the Body by : Michael L. Budde
Download or read book Witness of the Body written by Michael L. Budde and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beginning with the persecution of early Christians by the Roman Empire, Witness of the Body explores the place of martyrdom in the church through all ages -- and into the future. Throughout, it reminds readers that Christian martyrdom is neither a quick ticket to heaven nor a cheap political ploy, but rather the firm and faithful witness of Christ's church in a hostile world."--From publisher description.
Book Synopsis Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity by : Jan N. Bremmer
Download or read book Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity written by Jan N. Bremmer and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2017-07-13 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, Jan N. Bremmer aims to bring together the worlds of early Christianity and those of ancient history and classical literature - worlds that still all too rarely interlock. Contextualising the life and literature of the early Christians in their Greco-Roman environment, he focusses on four areas. A first section looks at more general aspects of early Christianity: the name of the Christians, their religious and social capital, prophecy and the place of widows and upper-class women in the Christian movement. Second, the chronology and place of composition of the early apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and Pseudo-Clementines are newly determined by paying close attention to their doctrinal contents, but also, innovatively, to their onomastics and social vocabulary. The author also analyses the frequent use of magic in the Acts and explains the prominence of women by comparing the Acts to the Greek novel. Third, an investigation into the theme of the tours of hell suggests a new chronological order, shows that the Christian tours were indebted to both Greek and Jewish models, and illustrates that in the course of time the genre dropped a large part of its Jewish heritage. The fourth and final section concentrates on the most famous and intriguing report of an ancient martyrdom: the Passion of Perpetua. It pays special attention to the motivation and visions of Perpetua, which are analyzed not by taking recourse to modern theories such as psychoanalysis, but by looking to the world in which Perpetua lived, both Christian and pagan. It is only by seeing the early Christians in their ancient world that we might begin to understand them and their emerging communities. (Publisher's description).
Book Synopsis The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom by : Paul Middleton
Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom written by Paul Middleton and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique, wide-ranging volume exploring the historical, religious, cultural, political, and social aspects of Christian martyrdom Although a well-studied and researched topic in early Christianity, martyrdom had become a relatively neglected subject of scholarship by the latter half of the 20th century. However, in the years following the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the study of martyrdom has experienced a remarkable resurgence. Heightened cultural, religious, and political debates about Islamic martyrdom have, in a large part, prompted increased interest in the role of martyrdom in the Christian tradition. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom is a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon from its beginnings to its role in the present day. This timely volume presents essays written by 30 prominent scholars that explore the fundamental concepts, key questions, and contemporary debates surrounding martyrdom in Christianity. Broad in scope, this volume explores topics ranging from the origins, influences, and theology of martyrdom in the early church, with particular emphasis placed on the Martyr Acts, to contemporary issues of gender, identity construction, and the place of martyrdom in the modern church. Essays address the role of martyrdom after the establishment of Christendom, especially its crucial contribution during and after the Reformation period in the development of Christian and European national-building, as well as its role in forming Christian identities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. This important contribution to Christian scholarship: Offers the first comprehensive reference work to examine the topic of martyrdom throughout Christian history Includes an exploration of martyrdom and its links to traditions in Judaism and Islam Covers extensive geographical zones, time periods, and perspectives Provides topical commentary on Islamic martyrdom and its parallels to the Christian church Discusses hotly debated topics such as the extent of the Roman persecution of early Christians The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of religious studies, theology, and Christian history, as well as readers with interest in the topic of Christian martyrdom.
Book Synopsis Syria Crucified by : Zachary Wingerd
Download or read book Syria Crucified written by Zachary Wingerd and published by Ancient Faith Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tragic war in Syria along with the plight of the Christians there remains among the most misunderstood situations in the world today. Syria Crucified seeks to contribute to better understanding in the West by giving a voice to individual Syrian Christians living in exile from their homeland. These men and women have undergone horrific trauma and loss without losing their faith in God or the ability to forgive their persecutors. Their first-person accounts, framed by the authors' narration for historical, cultural, and geopolitical context, are both edifying and inspiring.
Book Synopsis Christian Martyrdom in Late Antiquity (300-450 AD) by : Peter Gemeinhardt
Download or read book Christian Martyrdom in Late Antiquity (300-450 AD) written by Peter Gemeinhardt and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-07-04 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume’s focus lies on the formation of a multifaccetted discourse on Christian martyrdom in Late Antiquity. While martyrdom accounts remain a central means of defining Christian identity, new literary genres emerge, e.g., the Lives of Saints (Athanasius on Antony), sermons (the Cappadocians), hynms (Prudentius) and more. Authors like Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustine employ martyrological language and motifs in their apologetical and polemic writings, while the Gesta Martyrum Romanorum represent a new type of veneration of the martyrs of a single site. Beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, new martyrs’ narratives can be found. Additionally, two essays deal with methodological questions of research of such sources, thereby highlighting the hitherto understudied innovations of martyrology in Late Antiquity, that is, after the end of the persecutions of Christianity by Roman Emperors. Since then, martyrology gained new importance for the formation of Christian identity within the context of a Christianized imperium. The volume thus enlarges and specifies our knowledge of this fundamental Christian discourse.
