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Abstract
In the aftermath of 9/11, and the increase of the phenomenon of ‘suicide bombing’, it has become important for politicians, academics and religious leaders to distinguish between ‘true’ and ‘false’ manifestations of martyrdom. In order to do so, and to counter those who argue for the legitimacy of the suicide-attack, they must appeal to an objective and shared definition of martyrdom. However, as this article demonstrates, such a definition is elusive. Moreover, the quest to find one is doomed to failure; martyrdom has always been a contested phenomenon. Even excluding those who kill themselves or others from martyr-status is problematic, as examples of those remembered as martyrs are found in Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions. Official ecclesiastical canonisation processes are vulnerable to popular acclamation of ‘unofficial’ martyrs, and in any case churches often break their own rules. While mining the earliest Christian usage of the term ‘martus’ might appear promising, martyrdom was no less controversial in the early church, and functioned primarily as a means of creating and maintaining group identity, especially in the context of intra-Christian conflict. By examining martyrological narratives from the early, Reformation and modern periods – where I show that martyrologies can be created quite separately from their martyr’s actual convictions – I argue that attempts to distinguish between true and false ideologies of martyrdom are simply replaying historical disputes, and should be read as contributions to the martyrological process of creating or maintaining religious or political group identity.
Notes
1 For narrative approaches, see Weiner and Weiner (Citation1990), Boyarin (Citation1999), Castelli (Citation2004), Middleton (Citation2006, Citation2011).
2 Catechism of the Catholic Church #2473.
3 See Morris (Citation1993), Evans (Citation2007), Cowdrey (Citation1985); pace Hovey, who claims fighters cannot be martyrs (2008, p. 54).
4 Cf. Moss, Citation2010, who argues for a later date.
5 Martyr acts from the collection by Musurillo, Citation1972.
6 The Passion contains of what purports to be the prison diary of Perpetua. If this section is even partly authentic, this would represent the first recorded writing of a Christian woman.
7 Descriptions of torture are found in many Christian martyr acts. The earliest reference is Pliny’s famous letter to Trajan written in 110AD (Epistles 10.96; Radice, Citation1963).
8 A herald announces ‘Three times Polycarp has confessed himself to be Christian’ (Martyrdom of Polycarp 12).
9 Martyrdom of Justin and Companions 3.4; 4.1, 3, 4, 6, 9. A second recension adds a communal confession ‘We are Christians’ (Recension B 5.7).
10 See Perkins (Citation1995), Cobb (Citation2008), Matthews (Citation2010).
11 Tertullian complains in Scorpiace 1–7 that the ‘heretics’ appear unaffected by persecution. Versions of all early Christian primary texts are available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/churchfathers.html
12 Justin, 1 Apology 26.
13 Stromata 4.16–17.
14 Ferguson (Citation1993), Luter (Citation1996), Morris (Citation1994), Reasoner (Citation1997).
15 See especially Moss (Citation2012a, Citation2012b, pp. 145–58), van den Hoek (Citation1993).
16 For recent discussion of voluntary martyrdom, see Middleton (Citation2013), cf. Moss (Citation2012b).
17 So Frend (Citation1965, p. 360) remarks, ‘It is perhaps fortunate for the Church that Clement and Tertullian never met’.
18 Confessors are those who were arrested for confessing Christian faith, but were eventually released. They enjoyed a status slightly less than martyrs.
19 The same criticism may be levelled against theological accounts which argue that today martyrdom is a possibility for every Christian. So, Jensen (Citation2010) and Hovey (Citation2008), although he concedes that this ‘sounds absurd’ (p. 19).
20 The great weakness of many theological accounts of martyrdom is the tendency to simply adopt an Augustinian position as authoritative, for example, Jensen (Citation2010), Wicker (Citation2006).
21 On Reformation martyrdom, see the excellent treatment by Gregory (Citation1999).
22 Hus, Letter 6 in de Bonnechose (Citation1846).
23 Thomas Harding (1515–1572) quoted in Mitchell (Citation2012, pp. 76–77).
24 For discussion on Neda as martyr, see Middleton (Citation2011, pp. 27–28) and Mitchell (Citation2012, pp. 47–50). The BBC aired a documentary entitled Neda: An Iranian Martyr (24 November 2009).
25 This is especially true in a digital age. See Mitchell (Citation2012, pp. 42–50), and for the same problem in relation to Islam, see Bunt (Citation2003), especially pp. 67–111.
26 See Moss (Citation2013, pp. 8–13) for an effective analysis of the appropriation of martyr terminology by powerful right-wing figures to portray themselves as victims of liberal oppression. For example, Rick Santorum, a Republican Presidential candidate claimed in 2011 that that gay community had taken out a jihad against him for opposing gay marriage.