Ancient Christian martyrdom : diverse practices, theologies, and traditions / Candida R. Moss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moss, Candida, 1978- author.

Series:

Anchor Yale Bible reference library.

The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Martyrdom--Christianity.

Martyrdom.

Persecution--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Persecution.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (256 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2025.

Place of Publication:

London : Yale University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file rdaft

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Cultural Contexts: The Good Death and the Self- Conscious Sufferer

2. Asia Minor: Imitating Christ

3. Rome: Contesting Philosophy

4. Gaul: The Victors of Vienne and Lyons

5 Roman North Africa: Apocalyptic Ascent

6. Alexandria: Clement and the True Martyr

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

General Index

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Ancient Sources

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-300-28816-6

1-280-77051-1

9786613681287

0-300-15466-6

OCLC:

801411038