Early Christian Martyrdom and Civil Disobedience

Abstract

The success of non-violent resistance as employed by Gandhi and Martin Luther King for political ends prompts an inquiry concerning possible parallels with early Christian martyrdom. The martyr literature of the early church, in addition to theological motifs, does occasionally take note of practical aspects, such as "church-state" relations. The two elements of civil disobedience identified by David Daube—non-violence and unselfish motivation for the conduct—are present in early Christian martyrdom, but not in an unmixed way. Some early Christians did aim to convert the Roman Empire, and some noted martyrdom as contributing to this, but there is no indication that martyrdom was a conscious strategy to attain this goal.

Homo profanus: The Christian martyr and the violence of meaning-making

“…The thirdcentury Christian apologist Tertullian defiantly claimed that ''the blood of the Christians is seed'' for the spread of the faith, and though written a century earlier, this phrase has been taken as emblematic of Christianity's triumph over Rome. Much scholarship on Christian martyrdom in the last century (Ferguson, 1993;Frend, 1967Frend, , 1984Leemans, 2005;Lieu, 2004;Tilley, 1991) affirms this role of martyrdom, following a narrative of Christian growth inaugurated by fourth-century Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. 9 Explaining the relationship between martyr and institution, however, has proven controversial.…”