Christian Martyrdom and the Unity of the Church

Christian Martyrdom and the Unity of the Church is a critical assessment of the claim that the practice of Christian martyrdom--the stories that Christians tell about some deaths using the language of martyrdom--advances the unity of the church. Stories of Christian martyrs ought to foster Christian unity but in fact often undermine it, creating new patterns of division and harm. This is most obvious in the cases of those killed by other Christians, such as during the Reformation, but takes other forms as well. True Christian unity requires reframing the theology of martyrdom. In this light, ideas about being killed in "hatred of the faith," what it means to die for the truth, the scope of the communion of the saints, and the healing of memories take on new meanings.

The approach is not to start with an abstract concept of "the martyr," but how the stories of particular martyrs such as the Uganda Martyrs, the Coptic Martyrs of Libya, Óscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Franz Jägerstätter, Jan Hus, Dirk Willems, Maeyken Wens, Thomas More, the Canadian Martyrs, and Maria Goretti, are being received and reshaped in contemporary churches and settings.

An ecumenical lens provides a new perspective on the potential harms in the theology of martyrdom such as the justification of killing, nationalism, colonialism, triumphalism, and the silencing of victims. Thus, this book offers a critical-constructive contribution to the theology of Christian martyrdom as well as to contemporary ecumenical theology.