The importance of martyrdom for the spread of Christianity in the first centuries of the Common Era is a question of enduring interest. In this innovative new study, Candida Moss offers a radically new history of martyrdom in the first and second centuries that challenges traditional understandings of the spread of Christianity and rethinks the nature of Christian martyrdom itself. Martyrdom, Moss shows, was not a single idea, theology, or practice: there were diverse perspectives and understandings of what it meant to die for Christ.

Beginning with an overview of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish ideas about death, Moss demonstrates that there were many cultural contexts within which early Christian views of martyrdom were very much at home. She then shows how distinctive and diverging theologies of martyrdom emerged in different ancient congregations. In the process she reexamines the authenticity of early Christian stories about martyrs and calls into question the dominant scholarly narrative about the spread of martyrdom in the ancient world.

About the Author

Candida Moss is Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Reviews
"Intriguing, fresh, and thought-provoking"-Diane Fruchtman, Bryn Mawr Classical Review -- Diane Fruchtman * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
"Insightful and important"-W. Brian Shelton, Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism -- W. Brian Shelton * Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism *
"This book topples what we thought we knew and, in the process, proposes new ways of reading martyrdom literature and thinking about the place of the martyr in ancient Christianity."-Kyle Smith, Journal of Early Christian Studies -- Kyle Smith * Journal of Early Christian Studies *
"Ancient Christian Martyrdom . . . offers important challenges to some traditional assumptions."-Amy Brown Hughes, Books & Culture -- Amy Brown Hughes * Books & Culture *



Book Information
ISBN 9780300154658
Author Candida R. Moss
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 24mm