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In about 400 Prudentius visited the shrine of St Cassian at Imola and wrote a poem describing his martyrdom. Cassian, a schoolmaster, had been killed by his own pupils using their styli and wax tablets. The story was popular throughout the Middle Ages and its medieval reception has attracted attention. In addition, and hitherto unnoticed, features of Cassian’s death became motifs in narratives of violence in the medieval schoolroom, and this article explores these and reflects on what they can tell us about changes in the teacher–pupil relationship from Late Antiquity to the end of the twelfth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPalestinian women’s engagement with politics and their appropriation of conventionally masculine acts of martyrdom during the Second Intifada (2002–2005) have been subject to intense public debate, media scrutiny and contested cultural representations. This article, drawing on studies of terrorism as well as translation theory, examines first-hand accounts of acts of martyrdom by Palestinian women, which uphold Palestinian national and religious discourses of sacrifice. Failing to grapple with how and why Palestinians recognise these women’s acts as martyrdom, many Euro-American and Israeli scholars focus on personal, social and psychological motivations. While many Euro-American and Israeli scholars construct Palestinian female martyrs as socially deviant, we develop a different framework to understand female martyrdom on more local terms that resonate with Palestinians’ lived experience. We introduce five Palestinian female martyrs’ video testimonies that scholarship to date has overlooked. We contend that Palestinian female martyrs (shahids) are conscious agents whose final acts underscore their adherence to religious and national discourses of sacrifice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turkish nation had many martyrs and veterans during World War I, which caused the end of the existence of the Ottoman State, and during The National Struggle, which paved the way for the existence of the Republic of Türkiye. In Western Anatolia, where Bilecik is located, the National Struggle was fought against Greece. Due to the conditions of the time, families were able to identify their martyrs and veterans only in the following years. The martyrs and veterans who are the subject of the study were seen throughout the Ottoman geography of the period. Bilecik, like other Anatolian provinces, was included in the National Struggle to save Anatolia from occupation after the large geography lost in the First World War. In the examination carried out in this direction, in order to determine martyrdom and veteran status in the Bilecik Civil Court of First Instance; It was determined that a total of thirty two cases were concluded in four years, ten in 1931, nine in 1932, three in 1933, and ten before the end of 1935. As it takes up too much space to be included in one study, a total of thirty-three cases relating to the subject in 1934, 1936, 1937, 1939 and 1940 are examined in another study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Tertullian and Cyprian invoked commonplace imagery related to combat, agriculture, and mysticism to construe incarceration as spiritually beneficial for their North African Christian audiences. By subjecting to literary analysis passages from their letters in which incarceration is reimagined positively, we aim to demonstrate how these letters functioned rhetorically to teach and persuade Christians—both inside and outside of prison—about the value of incarceration and the need to persevere in the face of its well-known hardships. We also maintain that their innovative perspectives on incarceration not only addressed important issues in the second and third centuries, such as apostasy and martyrdom, but also operated within a broader Greco-Roman philosophical discourse that viewed incarceration as potentially beneficial for those capable of adopting the right mindset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 4 Maccabees' skillfully woven tale of seven brother martyrs and their mother, a rather puzzling phrase appears in the emotionally-charged scene of the mother looking upon the mutilated corpses of her seven sons. The graphic description—burned flesh, severed hands, scalped heads, corpses upon corpses—includes, in most editions of the text, a side reference to the place filled with many spectators because of the children's torments (4 Macc 15:20; NRSVue). These editions and translations reflect an ancient scribal emendation to the Greek text of Codex Sinaiticus that reads χόριον (afterbirth) as χορίδιον/χωρίδιον/χωρίον (place). What is surprising about this emendation is that it disrupts the focus of the encomium—the mother's exemplary courage despite seeing the extreme mutilation of her children—whereas the earlier reading, afterbirth, is an apt description of the corpses within the context of the scene and complements the portrayal of the mother's role throughout the book. This article considers how the erasure of afterbirth in 4 Macc 15:20 obscures the significance of the birthing metaphor in 4 Maccabees' portrayal of the mother's role, particularly as it relates to the image of her rebirthing (ἀνατίκτω) her sons into immortality (4 Macc 16:13). Far from a scribal error in need of emendation, afterbirth in 4 Macc 15:20 is a key feature of the birth imagery, which functions in concert with the masculinization of the mother to paint a portrait of her as the embodiment of both masculine and feminine ideals, the ultimate example of Torah piety, and a generative force of immortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While self-sacrifice and martyrdom are considered an important component in several forms of violent extremism, including jihadism and even sectors of violent right-wing extremism, very few works have looked at the presence of these narratives and practices in today's violent left-wing and anarchist extremism. This article aims to help fill this gap, paying attention to insurrectionary anarchism, an understudied violent extremist tendency within the diverse anarchist galaxy. In particular, the paper focuses on Alfredo Cospito, a well-known and influential exponent of this transnational clandestine movement, convicted of terrorism in Italy in 2013, and his widely publicized prison hunger strike in 2022–2023, drawing upon primary and secondary sources. During his long hunger strike to protest against detention conditions, Cospito knowingly risked his life for the cause but at the same time he explicitly rejected the idea of martyrdom with scorn. Building on this emblematic case, the paper explores the reasons why contemporary insurrectionary anarchists are reluctant to accept and promote the powerful social construct of martyrdom, with an emphasis on cultural and organizational constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russo-Ukrainian War has produced a myriad of necropolitical discourses regarding the justification of death and the subjugation of lives to potential death. Contemporary necropolitical scholarship has primarily focused on the civilian, subaltern dimension of this paradigm in a wider context, yet in this war, combatants from the opposing armed forces are the individuals most consistently embedded in these conditions of potential death. How, then, is the potential death of the combatant justified and legitimized? Through a critical engagement with the concept of the border as the front, this article will explore how the subjugation of Ukrainian and Russian combatants to the conditions of potential death is discursively justified through a framework of the necropolitical logics of survival and martyrdom. Through these logics, two competing necropolitical regimes of truth have arisen, nevertheless leading to the same conclusion – the mobilized bodies of the combatants at the front – yet promising different versions of a life beyond death itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits one of the texts associated with the fourteenth-century spread of Franciscan mission across Eurasia, the account of the travels of Odoric of Pordenone (d.1331). Odoric's text is often mined for what it might reveal about Latin Christian perceptions of East Asia. This article argues that the local rather than the global aspects of the text should be given prominence in our assessment of his work, and greater attention paid to the process of composition and likely audience. Odoric worked with a co-author and addressed a specifically Franciscan audience in the early fourteenth-century Veneto. The central priority of the text was to convey the 'reality' of a distant martyrdom, in Tana, India, in the absence of tangible relics to demonstrate the truth of that martyrdom. The account highlights some of the intellectual tensions produced as a narrative of universal mission – and martyrdom – became increasingly central to Franciscan identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That Putin's regime has been able to put the memory of the Great Patriotic War (GPW) to political use is hardly news to any observer of Russia. What is often overlooked, however, is that the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has contributed to the instrumentalization of this memory by the Kremlin. In this article, I aim to bridge this gap. Drawing on an analysis of the ROC's commemorative activities, I reconstruct the specific, martyrological, interpretation of the GPW that it is forging. With sin, atonement, and glory as its central concepts, this interpretation invests the suffering and losses of the GPW with patriotic sense. Thus, it turns the politically problematic traumatic memory of the GPW into a politically useful one. Simultaneously, it is consistent with the triumphant cult of the GPW advanced by the Kremlin. It also perfectly suits the statist historical narrative focused on the continuity of Russia's past, which is crucial for the ideology of Putin's regime. Furthermore, this interpretation does not contradict the Soviet memory of the GPW that the regime relies on. Finally, in combining Orthodox Christianity with militarism, the martyrological interpretation of the GPW is highly suitable for the regime's political business of the day, which is waging its war against Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the concept of stability in the context of Benedictine monasticism and its potential to counteract polarization in both religious and secular settings. The author emphasizes the importance of perseverance and commitment, and highlights the practice of "statio" as a means to cultivate stability and mindfulness. By staying present and committed to one's community, individuals can foster a sense of community and overcome divisions. The essay encourages readers to consider the value of stability in promoting healthy interpersonal relationships and depolarizing society. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses mythologies about the ancient council of Nicaea, near Roman emperor Constantine's city of Constantinople. Topics discussed include Constantine's toleration of Christianity and alliance with Christians, misrepresentations about Nicaea in Dan Brown's book "Da Vinci Code," and the understanding about the transition of Jesus Christ from human to divine with the Council of Nicaea convening to announce the doctrine of Christ's divinity.

The challenge and hope of ecumenism is to seek ways to see the reality of Christians who long for visible unity. Starting from the principle that this visible unity is already expressed in the unity of baptism, we aspire to the greatness of unity in the eucharist, the source of life. From every observable reality, the people of God earnestly seek an encounter with the sibling who suffers, despairs, and feels the desire for God. We believe in a God who wants and encourages the encounter, a God who has the initiative to see the face of humanity. We Christians live in many borderline situations—often at the limit of bloodshed, martyrdom, and suffering—for the simple desire to seek happiness and koinonia. The question would be: What do the rest of Christians do for those of my siblings who live in situations of death—borderline situations? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the historical and spiritual significance of early Roman Christian martyrs, emphasizing their role in the development of Christian relic veneration and the impact of their physical remains on subsequent generations. Topics discussed include the discovery and veneration of early Christian catacombs, the historical journey of St. Gordianus' relics, and the enduring relevance of martyrdom in contemporary discussions of religious intolerance.

This article examines the evidence for performative prayer in early Roman catacomb painting from the perspective of an art historian. Praying (orant) figures are a dominant theme of third-century painting. Although the orant pose is generally regarded as symbolic, strong evidence connects at least one of the figures with the intercessory prayers offered by the order of widows. Following the "Constantinian turn" in the fourth century, a different form of performative prayer prevailed at the tombs of martyrs, with worshippers lying in prostration (proskynesis) pouring out copious tears. Two much-discussed poems by Prudentius (Peristephanon IX and XI) describe this form of prayer in conjunction with paintings of the gruesome martyrdoms of St. Cassian of Imola and St. Hippolytus. Arguments that the paintings inspired the weeping are incompatible with the nature of catacomb painting at the time, and with testimonies to the power of the tomb itself to compel such displays. The more fruitful suggestion that the ekphrasis in Peristephanon XI reflects a painting of the death of the mythical Hippolytus leads to a grove in the Temple of Diana at Nemi and the legend that the hero was resurrected by Aesculapius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constantin Iordachi's book, "The Fascist Faith of the Legion 'Archangel Michael' in Romania, 1927-1941: Martyrdom and National Purification," offers valuable insights into the Legionary worldview and the history of Romanian fascism. The book explores the Legion's political faith, which incorporates theological elements and emphasizes martyrdom, sacrificial violence, and a crusading spirit. Iordachi's research is based on extensive archival sources and takes a culturalist approach to the history of fascism. The book delves into the rival national projects in Romania, the formation and growth of the Legion, its ideological characteristics, and its social networks. The text also examines the incorporation of various mythologies into a national epic by the Legion, its use of terrorism and violence, and its appeal to different social groups. Additionally, it explores the Legion's relationship with the Romanian Orthodox Church and its attempts to align the church with fascist ideology. The text concludes by discussing the legacy of Legionarism and its relevance in contemporary society. Overall, this text provides valuable insights into Romanian fascism and its impact on society. [Extracted from the article]

In St. Thomas Aquinas’ ethics, fortitude as one of the four cardinal virtues, is usually considered as the Christianization of ancient theory of Aristotle. Consequently, there is a paradigm shift from “the military paradigm” of ancient idea of fortitude to “the martyrdom paradigm” of St. Thomas by which the in-depth meaning of fortitude could be clarified. Within this paradigm shift, contemporary Christian thinker Paul Tillich’s insight of courage and the martyred self-sacrifice, along with St. Thomas’ standpoints, helps us to re-examine the significance of the virtue of fortitude in contemporary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1980 to 1988, Iran and Iraq fought the longest conventional war of the 20th century. As combat devolved into trench warfare from 1982 onwards, Iranian propagandists faced a new challenge in mobilizing troops for the front. The propaganda documentary series Revayat-e Fath, produced by the Iranian director Morteza Avini, is a response to these circumstances. In this article, the narratives employed by the series will be conceptualized as myths, and thus, it will be argued that the series uses already existing stories as work on myth, according to philosopher Hans Blumenberg's definition of the term. Specifically, the series employs the Qur'anic myth of Ibrahim and the story of Imam al-Husayn's martyrdom to narrate the necessity of patience, trust in God and self-sacrifice among the soldiers. By doing so, the series not only statically employs these myths but also engages in a process of reception in which certain significant parts are put into the historical context of the Iran-Iraq War. This resulted in the creation of a new myth, referred to in this paper as the Basiji myth, embedding the motifs mentioned above into a new narrative of the meaning of death and sacrifice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses three books that explore different aspects of Catholicism in colonial Mexico. The first book, "The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico," edited by Thomas M. Cohen, Jay T. Harrison, and David Rex Galindo, provides a broad picture of Franciscans' missionary work in New Spain. The second book, "The Stations of the Cross in Colonial Mexico" by John F. Schwaller, examines the history and development of the devotion to the Stations of the Cross in Mexico. The third book, "Transforming Saints" by Charlene Villaseñor Black, discusses the transportation and transformation of female Catholic images from Spain to New Spain. These books highlight the adaptation and interaction between Spanish Catholicism and Indigenous cultures in colonial Mexico. [Extracted from the article]

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claims some attacks by autonomous jihadists in the West, but not all of them. This article argues that ISIL selectively takes credit for attacks that fit tactical norms laid out in the group's propaganda. These norms include lethality toward the victims and martyrdom for the assailant. Probit regression analyses of a new database of autonomous attacks in the West confirm that lethality and martyrdom increase the probability of ISIL's official propaganda claiming a given incident. The Islamic State's "peer review" and selective credit-claiming incentivize autonomous jihadists to adopt more lethal and suicidal tactics so that their actions will gain acceptance and they will be recognized as soldiers of the caliphate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pedagogical character of Ignacio Ellacuría is a hermeneutics of the person and the character he represents according to his Christian and Jesuit vocation. Thus, it is an interpretation that identifies in the legacy of the Salvadoran Martyr a testimonial pedagogy, which is situated in the intellective, ethical and practical dimensions that identify him. By going through his formative trajectories, his intellective dynamism and the scope of his praxis, a pedagogical character is interpreted that is enunciated from his Christian work, the charge of his reality and his martyrdom. Hence, when considering the historical and mystagogical dimension that reality has for the Salvadoran Martyr, it is a character underlying his intellectual and biographical legacy, aspects that intuit a historical pedagogy whose pedagogical subject is a historicized intellectual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper engages in a comparative analysis of two prominent figures from the 2d century CE—Lucian of Samosata and Justin the Martyr. Lucian, the epideictic orator and social commentator, reintroduces the Olympians while rethinking paganism and engaging with Justin and the Apologists. Conversely, Justin, embodying the Christian pepaideumenos, places the new religion at the literary forefront and questions the stereotype of Christian simplicity. The paper argues that, in the context of reformative, paideutic Imperial culture, Lucian and Justin challenge the literary and religious status quo and engage the readers in a reconsideration of Christianity through the lens of the Second Sophistic and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fresh reading of Justin's Second Apology. It focuses on that text's narrative sections—the so-called martyrdom of Ptolemaeus and Lucius, and Justin's own rift with Crescens. It demonstrates both these stories' intratextual links, and their intertextual ties with contemporary mid-2d century literature—Achilles Tatius' Greek novel Leucippe and Clitophon, and Apuleius' Latin Apology. These in turn reveal the sophisticated rhetorical devices Justin employs, his goals in so doing, and the consequences for our understanding of the supposed new genre of Christian "apology." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the enculturated Catholic ethics of martyrdom embodied by the Martyrs of Fraternity of Burundi, a group of students whose cause is now before the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints for refusing to separate into Hutus and Tutsis during Burundi's 1993–2005 civil war. Engaging Fratelli Tutti from a local African perspective, it considers how the conviction that all human beings are brothers and sisters is to find concrete embodiment. Its argument develops Emmanuel Katongole's assertion that the African church provides a living witness of what hope looks like in contexts of violence and war, drawing on Burundian scholarship and more than sixty interviews conducted in Burundi from 2018 to 2024 to develop a thick narrative of fraternal martyrdom and the ethics of Ubuntu. By placing sacrificial solidarity rather than violence at the center of the story of the Martyrs of Fraternity, Burundian Catholics reimagine their civil war in ethical terms. This Burundian embodiment of an ethics of sacrificial solidarity, solidly grounded in its original cultural substratum, stands as a resource for a world increasingly engulfed by war, refusing to let violence have the last word in a story of fraternal love hallowed by sacrifice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses a still understudied figure that is present in martyrological accounts of the Early Modern Period: the child martyr which is an intriguing and important character in Catholic propaganda during the wars of religion that shook Europe. We will see how a Jesuit missionary uses this character in his account of the Christian mission in Japan. Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), in his work L'Histoire des martyrs du Japon (The History of the Martyrs of Japan) takes up a long Christian martyrological tradition while anchoring it in a context of cultural exchanges between Europe and Japan. Using various biblical narratives (whether the Passions of Christ or the martyrdom of the Maccabees) as a point of comparison with these Japanese martyrs, Trigault places these Christians, so far removed from his target audience, in a Catholic community that extends over a long period of time and a vast geographical territory. In this use of the martyrological narrative, the death of the children proves to be a powerful argument. As exceptional figures of martyrdom, they act as witnesses to the level of faith of a community, the sacrifice of the children being the ultimate demonstration of its constancy. However, the figure of the martyred child also comes into conflict with the figure of the morally crippled child, testifying to the ambiguity that European culture and the Christian religion have with this period of life. These stories, later exported to Europe, are used to edify both the youngest children, urging them to imitate their Japanese counterparts, and the parents, presenting an ideal imagery of the Christian family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Jesuit Art and Czech Lands, 1556¿1729: Missionizing through the Arts" edited by Kate¿ina Horní¿ková and Michal ¿ron¿k offers a comprehensive examination of how the Society of Jesus used art to strengthen the Catholic Church and convert Protestants in Bohemia and Moravia. The essays explore the historical contexts of these lands' religious and cultural landscapes, including the Hussite War, the re-Catholicization efforts, and the use of devotional print and painting series. The book also discusses the Jesuits' adoption of medieval Marian images and the cultic staging of images of Jesuit saints. Overall, this book provides valuable insights into Jesuit art and culture in the Czech lands. [Extracted from the article]

The Old Hispanic liturgy for Córdoban saints Faustus, Januarius, and Martialis associates the martyrs with the three men thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). This article explores the compilation choices and musical strategies that establish this biblical parallel, their possible motivations, and how a liturgy emphasizing these biblical heroes would have been received by the community that used it. The chants and prayers for Faustus, Januarius, and Martialis are borrowed from the liturgy for another trio of Iberian saints (Fructuosus, Augurius, and Eulogius), and I argue that these chants may have been selected to capitalize on the layers of cultural associations that had accrued to Daniel 3. Contemporary biblical illuminations, illustrated Beatus Apocalypse commentaries, and anti-Islamic polemics alike emphasize the Babylonian location of the three men in the furnace. In anti-Islamic polemic, Babylon becomes Córdoba, the capital of the Umayyad caliphate. These textual and artistic traditions were prominent at the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, the presumed origin of the earliest witness to the surviving liturgy for Faustus, Januarius, and Martialis. After newly identifying anti-Islamic polemical aspects of the saints’ passio, I propose that the choice to highlight Daniel 3 in Faustus, Januarius, and Martialis’s liturgy emphasized the saints’ Córdoban origin and inscribed their story within the contemporary contexts of Muslim-Christian relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article examines the many occurrences of dying and death in the Acts of the Apostles. While Acts often refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus, it also speaks of the resurrection of the dead in general, of death as a form of divine judgement, of the prospect of death and the actual deaths of persons who believe in Christ, and other forms and instances of natural and violent dying and death. While there are instances of death and references to it in many chapters, the emphasis in Acts lies on different divine and human ways of being saved from death or its threat, and on the resurrection of the dead. Fully acknowledging the reality and tragedy of death, Acts nonetheless proclaims a message of life and salvation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses critical discourse analysis and critical literacy to analyze the first in a series of literacy primers developed with US support for children in Afghanistan in the 1980s, called 'Jihad literacy'. The text is analyzed for its ideological content as related to the themes of religion, violence, and martyrdom in the historical perspective of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The paper demonstrates how the notion of 'Jihad' was subverted to promote a holy war against the Soviet invasion. The educational system supported by the US created a radical version of Islam based on violence and martyrdom, shaping the Afghan society to this day. We contend that the same or similar institutions shape current discourses as in the past and that children are the main victims of politico-economic warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For political and literary theorists working on race, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a canonical text. Most political theorists approach the novel through what this essay calls a "martyr reading," though martyrdom is just one of several political strategies explored in the work. This essay highlights an alternative in Ellison's repertoire. The "trickster reading" developed here better accounts for several key scenes in the novel and also shows the limits of martyrdom as a technique of democratic politics. While other democratic theorists have identified Ellison with redemptive or deliberative aims, the novel's references to Homer's Odyssey, with its own trickster-hero, license a trickster reading of Invisible Man. Tricksters do not take on suffering, loss, or sacrifice in the hope of redemption nor are they necessarily committed to the virtues of deliberation. Instead, they evade sacrifice by resorting routinely to irony, cunning, and refusal. This reading demonstrates the importance of these techniques to Ellison's vision and to our politics today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to rethink martyrdom, suffering, and resurrection from the perspective of queer theologies within the Latin American context and in dialogue with the praxis of the first faith communities who witnessed Jesus' martyrdom. Starting from the queer body of Jesus—which incorporates in its praxis an ethos without gender violence and discrimination—the theological reflection contributes to the recovery of the fundamental principles of human experience. To this end, the analysis begins by addressing the feminist contribution to the understanding of violence against women to then rethink the intersection of bodies, sexuality, and violence against queer individuals and communities as a theological locus. It concludes by recognizing that queer theologies configure a resistant theological community that empowers queer bodies as a territory of hope of resurrection and transformative political action that does not disregard the suffering and the injustices perpetrated against them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the importance of faith in the Victorian historical novel, with a particular focus on George Eliot's Romola (1862–1863), and rethinks past secularist approaches to the genre. Romola was arguably the most meticulously researched historical novel of the nineteenth century. Set in Florence from 1492 to 1498, the novel traces the rise and fall of the Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, as he pursued the spiritual and political reform of the city, leading to his excommunication and martyrdom. Despite the religious setting of the novel, Eliot's painstaking effort to imagine a realistic historical representation of Florentine society has often been approached in secular terms as a tour de force of the author's humanist vision of a progressive march towards modernity. Building on recent work in postsecular studies, this essay rethinks the novel's historical realism in terms of Christian faith. Centering on the spiritual journey of the protagonist, Romola de' Bardi, the novel presents a faithful depiction of Renaissance Florence by imagining historical representation as an act of faith. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's essay, "Faith and Knowledge", the article analyzes how Eliot frames the significance of the novel's historical representation as an act of faith that one's life is bound meaningfully to those of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this essay is to recall what motivated bin Laden to risk his life, his family, his fortune, and his reputation in confronting the military might of the United States in order to (1) rid the Muslim world of the U.S. presence, (2) overthrow repressive, apostate Muslim regimes not governed by Sharia law, and (3) destroy the state of Israel. The point of understanding bin Laden's motives is not to excuse any aspect of the barbarous acts he committed, but rather to capture as fully as possible the magnitude of the threat he posed and that which al Qaeda and similar groups, buttressed by his martyrdom, continue to pose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the significance of a series of posthumously discovered, staged, colour photographs of twin boys holding rifles, as well as a short screenplay entitled 'Tulips Bloom', that the internationally-recognized artist Sadegh Tirafkan (1965–2013) created as a youth in Ahwaz, Iran, in 1982. Taking into consideration the context of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) and the related culture of martyrdom that so strongly affected the region and the artist's imagination reveals a subtext of trauma that may – the author proposes – explain the prominence of visual motifs, symbols and themes that recur throughout the artist's subsequent 30-year career. The author relies upon visual analysis of the artist's photographic art, published interviews, comparative visual analysis involving Iranian visual culture from the era (Balaghi; Chelkowski and Dabashi; Saramifar; Varzi); art history (Daneshvari; Foster; Keshmirshekan; Nazari; Porter); and theories of trauma from psychology (Herman), literary theory (Caruth) and sociology (Alexander; Erikson), in order to provide a new understanding of the artist's work throughout his career, from 1982 to 2013, and how the Iran-Iraq War shaped notions of Iranian post-Revolutionary identity in terms of military sacrifice and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'The Sequence on the Virgin Mary and Christ', by the poet and martyr St Robert Southwell, S.J. (1561–95), is a beautiful work that is generally still undervalued. The sequence explores the physical, moral, and emotional unity of Mary and her Son in the work of our salvation. The larger context is the Protestant devaluing of hyperdulia. In its historical moment – it was written sometime in the 1580s – it is a subtle exploration of the theme of kenosis and of what a 'prince' or 'queen' should really be. While being relatively inexplicit, Southwell seems to poise the Virgin Mary against that other 'empress', Elizabeth I, and writes with intimacy from the perspective of his own self-understanding as 'Beatae Virginis filius' (a son of the Blessed Virgin). The sequence's modern, editorial title needs to be replaced with one that matches its devotional aims and content. As he faced up to the almost certain prospect of his own martyrdom, Southwell looked to Mary as true mother and queen to sustain him in his sacrifice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the testimony of Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 20.197–203), most scholars place the death of James, the brother of Jesus in 62 c.e. This article breaks with this consensus, arguing that the reference to Jesus "called Christ" in Jewish Antiquities 20.200 is a later Christian interpolation. If it can be shown that the Josephan account was not originally about James, the early Christian leader, then James's death cannot be linked to the high priesthood of Ananus in 62 c.e. It also means that if any of the historical circumstances surrounding James's death can be recovered, they must be sought in the Christian narratival accounts of early antiquity. After reviewing the complex source-critical relations between the James tradition in Hegesippus, Clement of Alexandria, the Second Apocalypse of James , and the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions , and establishing the earliest independent form of the tradition, I argue that the narrative logic of the martyrdom account depends on at least two minimal historical likelihoods: 1) that James was in fact killed; and 2) that his death occurred shortly before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 c.e. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a follow-up to the research conducted in 2021 titled James Anta: missionary, martyr, and the unsung hero of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. The paper was a reconstruction of Anta's life, ministry, and martyrdom. The research found out that although the blood of Anta was the seed of Methodism in Zimbabwe, the church was reluctant to honour him. The research also noted that the Wesleyan Methodist church created a biased history of African cultural epistemology, which has no place for people who die young and unmarried. The paper concluded with a call for the Wesleyan Methodist church to rewrite its historiography, giving space to its martyrs like Anta. After reading the 2021 publication, the Wesleyan Methodist church leadership made urgent actions towards the re-historicization of Methodism in Zimbabwe with Harare West District dubbing its April 2022 Synod as James Anta Synod. The Synod further resolved to name the school they were intending to build after Anta. Moreover, Kadoma District agreed to rename Banket Circuit (where Anta was assassinated) as James Anta Circuit. The Wesleyan Methodist church further erected a monument of Anta and made the site a pilgrimage shrine. The fast responses by the church to honour Anta in 2022 justify their zeal to rewrite their history after 136 years of reluctancy. This paper used both primary and secondary sources to gather data. The paper concludes by challenging missionary churches to honour African agents whose history and sacrifice were seldomly considered and yet they were the key people in the Christianisation of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Paul K.‐K. Cho explores the themes of suicide, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom in the Hebrew Bible. Cho examines various figures and texts from the Old Testament that deal with these concepts. He argues that while some suicides are depicted negatively, others can be seen as neutral or even positively ennobling within the honor-shame dynamics of ancient Israel. Cho also discusses the willingness of certain biblical figures to put their lives at risk for the benefit of others, and he examines the concept of martyrdom in the Old Testament. Overall, Cho's analysis sheds new light on these often overlooked themes in the Hebrew Bible. [Extracted from the article]

Igino Giordani was a protagonist of the twentieth century. His political and intellectual action was inspired by the principles of peace and social justice. He fought lonely battles in difficult times, in which there was no place for prophets of hope. By joining Chiara Lubich's Focolare Movement, she reorganized her experience by focusing it on the reasons for the transformation of the present in view of the unity conceived as the destiny of the cosmos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the teachings of St. Justin Martyr on the conditions for receiving the Eucharist. St. Justin emphasizes that only those who believe in the Church's teachings, have been baptized for the forgiveness of sins, and live according to Christ's example are allowed to partake in the Eucharist. The article emphasizes the importance of discernment and preparation before receiving the Eucharist, highlighting the significance of faith, baptism, and living a Christ-like life. It encourages readers to reflect on these teachings and strive to live a life that is open to Christ's mercy and teachings. [Extracted from the article]

Donald Trump's election in 2016 triggered an identity crisis for many Republican Party leaders. One such Republican – Sen. Jeff Flake – framed this crisis as a test of conservative principles and challenged Trumpism in the American jeremiadic tradition. Flake employed the rhetoric of martyrdom to explain his opposition to his party's president and justify his retirement from public office. We analyze Flake's construction of rhetorical martyrdom within the American jeremiad. Flake's rhetoric is carefully constructed political communication that purposely serves as a reformative guidepost for current and future political actors navigating intraparty conflict and political pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crossley and Myles's Jesus: A Life in Class Struggle offers an innovative and accessible reading of the movement around Jesus in terms of class struggle. The authors combine a breadth of knowledge about first-century realities, acumen in exegesis of the Gospel texts, and contemporary crowd theory to reach new conclusions regarding Jesus and his disciples, especially in his last days, and regarding the 'failure' of their movement. This review examines their understanding of the 'Jesus movement' and its relationship to the Galilean peasantry and their methodology in extrapolating from the Gospels; and proposes a more thorough Marxist theorization of the Gospels' role in producing the 'failure' they describe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces the language of sacrifice used in a series of articles in the Protestant church magazine Tian Feng in the early 1950s to explore the ways in which sacrifice was demanded of Christians by church leaders, both to create an autonomous, indigenous church freed from imperialist association, and in service of the new nation. It explores the biblical tropes utilised to link sacrifice and nation, and the role of the Korean War in catalysing demand for physical martyrdom alongside ideological sacrifice. The essay suggests that the radical vehemence of the period masks continuities in theological expression with the earlier twentieth century and that much closer attention needs paying to the Chinese construct of 'nation' and its historic connotations in addressing the question of Chinese Christian nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the United States, in 2020 and 2021, the Trump presidency and the covid-19 pandemic brought to light clashes in shared and lived realities among Americans and displayed them in jarring and perplexing scenarios—with a deadly toll. Strange martyrdoms and enacted oaths of loyalty to Trump in the form of people not getting vaccinated, not taking precautions, often attacking those who did, and throwing themselves away by (simply) dying are collective examples of what Jacques Lacan called the passage à l'acte and are symptoms of a profound decay of political culture. Radicalization of what Timothy Snyder has called "sadopopulism" and Chris Hedges has called "corporate totalitarianism" have led to a pervasive sense of impotence among large swaths of global populations who have been, and are being, abandoned and discarded, made victims of radical neglect, disappearance, and silencing—the covid martyrs a category among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problem of suicide in monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), focusing on their early existence and considering the original contribution of Christianity. The first part presents the main theses of E. Durkheim on altruistic suicide and the concept of honour. This provides an opportunity to examine the problem of suicide in monotheistic religions from a more comprehensive perspective and recognise a certain specificity of suicide that was absent in altrusitic suicide. The analysis of the problem in relation to the concept of honour is also a valuable starting point for complementary psychological theories. The second part of the article is a more detailed discussion of suicide in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The results provide a better understanding of the origins and nature of suicide in monotheistic religions whilst opening up a discussion on the possibility of suicide prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]