Contextualising early Christian martyrdom

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) The aim of this collection of essays is 'to contextualise early Christian martyrdom in the wider, historical, cultural and social context of its appearance' (p. 8). In a typically subtle essay, Judith Lieu attempts to break down the somewhat ham-fisted distinctions which are sometimes drawn up between apologies and martyr accounts, showing, inter alia, how apologetic motifs are to be found in the latter, and reference to martyrdoms in the former. Anders Klostergaard Petersen explores attitudes to gender as these manifest themselves in martyr accounts; and the collection is brought to an end with an essay by Danya Kalleres in which the post-Constantinian use of martyr ideology is explored, showing both how it could be used to endorse imperial ideology and to give Christians a greater sense of attachment to a heroic past, here as a means of criticising activity in the present.