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Posted on 10/09/2003 10:08:01 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
Death and Martyrdom: An Important Aspect of Early Christian Eschatology
by Dr. William C. Weinrich
Concordia Theological Quarterly,Volume 66, Issue 4, pp. 327-338
(Posted with permission from the author)
Under the emperor Commodus, toward the end of the second century, a wealthy Roman by the name of Apollonius was arrested on the charge that he was a Christian. The extant account of his martyrdom reports that when Apollonius was brought before the court, the proconsul, Perennis, inquired of Apollonius: “Apollonius, are you a Christian?” To this question Apollonius responded: “Yes, I am a Christian, and for that reason I worship and fear the God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.”
This response of Apollonius, which at first appears so self-evident and natural, in fact implicitly contains a thorough theology of martyrdom not uncommon in the early church. Indeed, it is my conviction that this early theology of martyrdom provides us with a helpful entree to a reflection on the nature and meaning of death, most especially of the death of the Christian.
At a time when in our own culture the reality of death is increasingly trivialized and made simply a matter of one's own choice, and at a time when the atavistic generation of the 1960's is entering into its “golden” years, the question “what does it mean to die” comes more and more to center stage and, I suspect, will be a major focus of the church's proclamation in the next quarter century.
(Excerpt) Read more at beezwaxrecords.com ...
Anyway, Dr. Weinrich graciously allowed me to post this. The formatting is slightly different than the original article by virtue of additional paragraph breaks to make it easier for reading on the screen. Typographical errors and lack of footnotes are my responsibility. I will try to correct and upgrade as time and opportunity allow.
It is an awesome thing to deal with this subject. I am not worthy. My questions to those who read this article: How does the Christian principle of martyrdom compare to that of the Muslim? How does this article impinge upon controversies surrounding materialistic ideologies, specifially naturalistic evolution? Is this kind of martyrdom literally taking place in the United States today?
My hope is that Christians will hold fast to the Faith and hear the voice of their Shepherd, Jesus Christ who is risen and lives and rules to all eternity. This is most certainly true.
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check it out !
To: gore3000
Yes you should be banned for all the attacks on non-christian conservatives you have engaged in. Yes you should be ... banned --- for hurting the republican party by spouting a litany of pseudo-scientific nonsense.
509 posted on 10/09/2003 7:43 PM PDT by Sentis
also ...
Incredibly, the creepy stalkies still creep and stalk, imagining themselves one taunt, one Admin Moderator ping from ... scoring --- a kill.
443 posted on 10/09/2003 6:08 PM PDT by VadeRetro
fC ...
There's an inquisition - execution - persecution going on the FR !
Check out the ... What Is Man ? --- new vs old age Christian war going on !
Your answer comes from the material you linked:
Martyrdom consists of the death imposed on one who wills to remain constant in his confession of faith, rather than to deny that confession. Martyrdom entails death; only that one who dies for the faith is called a “martyr.” However, and this is a second observation, the death imposed on the martyr is the result of a judgment to death. And a third observation: the judgment to death imposed on the martyr is due to the refusal of the martyr to confess and to sacrifice to false gods.
Any muslim who dies in war is considered a martyr. But by Christian standards, none of them are martyrs. Their victims, being killed for their religion, come closer to our conception of martyrs, except that they had little choice and didn't see it coming.
In the US, martyrdom doesn't exist in the classic sense. There exists the possibility of confrontation with the powers that be which could result in the loss of your children, under certain conditions, or the closing of your school, or some similar penalty. To take a choice intentionally which could result in this kind of civil penalty is a kind of martyrdom.
I would also grant the title of martyr in examples such as some of the civil rights marchers who willingly marched into beatings, and willingly confronted hooligans with and without badges. Such confrontations cost some of them their lives, which they had reason to expect.
To me, martyrdom carries with it an element of choice. To be a martyr, you have to have seen it coming, and voluntarily took the steps that led you into a fatal confrontation for a higher purpose than your own life.
In that sense, a soldier could be a martyr, if his purpose in serving was to oppose evil with his life and his body. In such a case, the men who died in the sands at Normandy, for example, were martyrs.
This might seem to parallel the muslim idea of martyrdom, where any muslim who dies in battle is a martyr, but it differs on one major point: The muslim "martyrs" we most commonly hear about are murderers. A murderer is not a martyr, though his victims might be. A soldier in a just cause is not a murderer. His voluntary surrender of his life is a kind of martyrdom.
Just my opinion, though.
In The Rebirth of Orthodoxy, Thomas C. Oden writes in a subchapter entitled, "Is Orthodoxy Merely the Skewed Memory of Winners?" some interesting comments on martyrs. He points out how within the Enlightenment tainted church the Marxist, or "social-location" arguement, presumes strongly that Orthodoxy is merely the "history of a powerful majority." He says:
Suppose the Montanus and Marcion, for example, were as right apostolically and doctrinally as their "orthodox" opponents but lacked the muscle -- no army, no police -- with which to coerce their position. Suppose that the winners, were by definition labeled as ortodox and the losers by definition as heretics. If that were the case, the history of orthodoxy would be nothing more than the history of a powerful majority: it would not be the history of truth.The above suppositions reflect a standard sophomore classroom objection to orthodoxy. The most familiar form of that arguement is the Marxist or social-location arguement, which challenges religious judgements on the premise that they can always be shown to come from some particular social location or vested interest within the economic order. The Marxist explanation of orthodoxy was simple: economic interests prevailed. Ideological winners imposed their views on ideological losers coercively--a matter of power. Though Marxism is now in disrepute, dreary echoes of the Marxist explanation still linger--oddly enough, in university departments of religious studies, of all places.
Vincent of Lerins, a fifth century monk about whom much will be told in later chapters, provided the classic answer to the social-location arguement: the arguement from martyrdom. As Vincent noted, it is self-evident that the martyrs had no economic interest. Their willingness to give their lives for the truth showed their contempt for all economic interests....
It is sad that the witness of the defenseless Christian martyrs has been clouded in our time by Islamic Activists who chose brutally to kill others while themselves dying. These are not analogous cases. On the contrary, the former case dies to attest the truth; the later dies intentionally to hurt and kill. Islamic suicide killers are not adequate or faithfull representatives of the faith of historic Islam. Christian martyrs, on the other hand, profoundly attest the deep faith of Christianity.
Dulce Et Decorum EstFor the Latin deprived: dulce et decorum . . = "It is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland."
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
--Wilfred Owens
A good way of putting it. I hope to check into the historic meaning of "martyr" when it comes to those of Islamic faith. I certainly don't see them being put on trail for their beliefs and being asked to deny their god "or else."
Thanks for your post.
Like the word "hero," the word "martyr" can, and has, gained a wider meaning. Most people think of martyrdom as giving one's life for any cause. In fact, it often does not even entail giving up one's life, but only giving in to a power greater than oneself.
There is no question that suicide bombers are giving up their own lives while taking others along for the ride. To me the application of the word "martyr" in this case is an abuse; an affront to those who quietly let their lives be taken because they knew life ultimately has an Author who creates and sustains the same.
Hard to believe any rebirth of Orthodoxy is happening around here. From my perspective a good many things theological are going straight down the tubes.
Are we translating correctly when we use the word "martyr" in connection with Muslims? The Arabic word . . . what is it? Hopefully someone will chime in with a little expertise.
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