Download or read book The Myth of Persecution written by Candida Moss and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.

Download or read book Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church written by W. H. C. Frend and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 1082 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Christian Persecution in Antiquity written by Professor of Church History Wolfram Kinzig and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries into the Common Era, Christians faced social ostracism and suspicion from neighbors and authorities alike. At times, this antipathy erupted into violence. Following Christ was a risky allegiance: to be a Christian in the Roman Empire carried with it the implicit risk of being branded a traitor to cultural and imperial sensibilities. The prolonged experience of distrust, oppression, and outright persecution helped shape the ethos of the Christian faith and produced a wealth of literature commemorating those who gave their lives in witness to the gospel. Wolfram Kinzig, in Christian Persecution in Antiquity, examines the motivations and legal mechanisms behind the various outbursts of violence against Christians, and chronologically tracks the course of Roman oppression of this new religion to the time of Constantine. Brief consideration is also given to persecutions of Christians outside the borders of the Roman Empire. Kinzig analyzes martyrdom accounts of the early church, cautiously drawing on these ancient voices alongside contemporary non-Christian evidence to reconstruct the church's experience as a minority sect. In doing so, Kinzig challenges recent reductionist attempts to dismantle the idea that Christians were ever serious targets of intentional violence. While martyrdom accounts and their glorification of self-sacrifice seem strange to modern eyes, they should still be given credence as historical artifacts indicative of actual events, despite them being embellished by sanctified memory. Newly translated from the German original by Markus Bockmuehl and featuring an additional chapter and concise notes, Christian Persecution in Antiquity fills a gap in English scholarship on early Christianity and offers a helpful introduction to this era for nonspecialists. Kinzig makes clear the critical role played by the experience of persecution in the development of the church's identity and sense of belonging in the ancient world.

Download or read book Persecution in the Early Church written by Herbert B. Workman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of persecution in the early Church, treated as a whole, has been somewhat neglected by English writers. The legal aspects of the matter, the relations of the Church to the Empire, and the nature of the courts and procedure by which the Christians were condemned have been fully dealt with in the researches of Ramsay, Hardy, and others . . . Persecution also, treated merely from the standpoint of the Church, the experiences of the martyrs, has, of course, never lacked presentation in this country from the days of Foxe onward . . . [A] treatment of the subject as a whole, in its legal, historical, ecclesiastical, and experiential aspects, is what I have attempted in the following pages . . . While I trust that no aspect of the subject has been neglected, special attention has been drawn to those aspects of the inner life of the Church which led to persecution. Contents 1. The Master and His Disciples 2. Casesar or Christ 3. The Causes of Hatred 4. The Great Persecution 5. The Experiences of the Persecuted

Download or read book Christian Persecution Martyrdom and Orthodoxy written by Geoffrey Ernest Maurice De Ste. Croix and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006-09-28 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together seven seminal papers by the great radical historian Geoffrey de Ste. Croix, who died in 2000, on early Christian topics, with an especial focus on persecution and martyrdom. Christian martyrdom is a topic which conjures up ready images of inhumane persecutors confronted by Christian heroes who perish for the instant but win the long-term battle for reputation. In five of these essays Ste. Croix scrutinizes the evidence to reveal the significant role ofChristian themselves, first as volunteer martyrs and later, after the triumph of Christianity in the early fourth century, as organizers of much more effective persecutions. A sixth essay pursues the question of the control of Christianity through a comprehensive study of the context for one of theChurch's most important and divisive doctrinal decisions, at the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451); the key role of the emperor and his senior secular officials is revealed, contrary to the prevailing interpretation of Church historians. Finally the attitudes of the early Church towards property and slavery are reviewed, to show the divide between the Gospel message and actual practice.

Download or read book I Am A Christian written by Anthony P. Schiavo, Jr. and published by Arx Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Jesus never existed." "The Bible is a book of fairy tales." "Accounts of Christian persecution are fables." Christians of today face ridiculous claims of this type on a regular basis. These charges gain traction in the modern world because the average person has practically no knowledge of the Church's ancient past. I Am A Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution from the Ancient Sources aims to remedy this deficiency. The works collected in this book represent some of the most trustworthy first-hand accounts of the triumphs and travails of the early Church that have survived antiquity. These include several authentic transcripts of Roman legal proceedings against Christians, along with obscure but fascinating historical works that are unfamiliar to even the most informed Christians of today. In several cases, readers will be presented with the actual words of the martyrs themselves. In others, they will read accounts penned by eye-witnesses or authors writing within the living memory of the events themselves. Taken together, these works form a glorious record of early Christian zeal and fortitude in the face of aggressive state persecution. When reading them, one notices a common refrain: when questioned, the accused would cry out: “I am a Christian,” which was the equivalent of saying, “I am guilty as charged.” In an era when such an admission carried a death sentence, these authentic testimonies provide a convincing answer to modern skeptics who will find them as baffling as did the ancient Roman emperors, proconsuls and magistrates of nearly two millennia ago.

Download or read book The Coming Christian Persecution written by Thomas D. Williams and published by Crisis Publication. This book was released on 2023-03-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The age of martyrs is not a thing of the past … Churches burned. Christians beheaded. Faith communities driven underground. Governments forcing silence upon those who profess fidelity to the Gospel. These experiences are not confined to members of the early Church or to the missionaries and converts in far-off pagan lands centuries ago. The persecution of Christians is happening right now-and it is closer to home than you may realize. Moral theologian and news analyst Dr. Thomas Williams incisively juxtaposes the still relatively unknown global Christian persecution of today with that of previous epochs, describing it in its various forms and providing insight into what it means for the Church and for society at large. Dr. Williams shows how Christian persecution has been with us since the time of Jesus, and how modern attacks against Christians spring from six primary sources: atheism, radical Islam, Hindu nationalism, totalitarianism, academia, and Satanism. He provides valuable advice on how these outrages can be remedied and explains what Christians can do to prepare for what is to come.

Download or read book Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity written by Graham Stanton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-05-28 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this book consider issues of tolerance and intolerance faced by Jews and Christians between approximately 200 BCE and 200 CE. Several chapters are concerned with many different aspects of early Jewish-Christian relationships. Five scholars, however, take a difference tack and discuss how Jews and Christians defined themselves against the pagan world. As minority groups, both Jews and Christians had to work out ways of co-existing with their Graeco-Roman neighbours. Relationships with those neighbours were often strained, but even within both Jewish and Christian circles, issues of tolerance and intolerance surfaced regularly. So it is appropriate that some other contributors should consider 'inner-Jewish' relationships, and that some should be concerned with Christian sects.

Download or read book From Jesus to Christ written by Paula Fredriksen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."—Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. This edition includes an introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology. "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."—Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."—James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion "Fredriksen confronts her documents—principally the writings of the New Testament—as an archaeologist would an especially rich complex site. With great care she distinguishes the literary images from historical fact. As she does so, she explains the images of Jesus in terms of the strategies and purposes of the writers Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor

Download or read book Persecution in 1 Peter written by Travis B. Williams and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Persecution in 1 Peter, Travis B. Williams offers a comprehensive and detailed socio-historical investigation into the nature of persecution in 1 Peter, situating the epistle against the backdrop of conflict management in first-century CE Asia Minor.

Download or read book The Early Persecutions of the Christians written by Leon Hardy Canfield and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Early Christian Persecutions written by Dana Carleton Munro and published by . This book was released on 1897 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Tolerance Intolerance and Recognition in Early Christianity and Early Judaism written by Michael Labahn and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-16 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays investigates signs of toleration, recognition, respect and other positive forms of interaction between and within religious groups of late antiquity. At the same time, it acknowledges that examples of tolerance are significantly fewer in ancient sources than examples of intolerance and are often limited to insiders, while outsiders often met with contempt, or even outright violence. The essays take both perspectives seriously by analysing the complexity pertaining to these encounters. Religious concerns, ethnicity, gender and other social factors central to identity formation were often intertwined and they yielded different ways of drawing the limits of tolerance and intolerance. This book enhances our understanding of the formative centuries of Jewish and Christian religious traditions. It also brings the results of historical inquiry into dialogue with present-day questions of religious tolerance.

Download or read book The Great Persecution written by Vincent Twomey and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the papers brought together for this conference are: 'Philosophical objections to Christianity on the eve of the great persecution', 'Lessons from Diocletian's persecution', 'Preparation for martyrdom in the early church' and 'The origin of the cult of St George'.

Download or read book Persecution in the Early Church written by Herbert Brook Workman and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Early Christian Martyr Stories written by Bryan M. Litfin and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal narratives are powerful instruments for teaching, both for conveying information and for forming character. The martyrdom accounts preserved in the literature of early Christianity are especially intense and dramatic. However, these narratives are not readily available and are often written in intimidating prose, making them largely inaccessible for the average reader. This introductory text brings together key early Christian martyrdom stories in a single volume, offering new, easy-to-read translations and expert commentary. An introduction and explanatory notes accompany each translation. The book not only provides a vivid window into the world of early Christianity but also offers spiritual encouragement and inspiration for Christian life today.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Nero written by Shadi Bartsch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-09 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively and accessible guide to the rich literary, philosophical and artistic achievements of the notorious age of Nero.