Suchergebnisse

How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? Christian Martyrs under Islam explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy.Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, Christian Sahner introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity, high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet, and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. Sahner argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. Christian Martyrs under Islam examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim-Christian relations in the centuries to come.

By J.G. Forman, minister of the Second Congregational Church in Nantucket ; until recently minister of the First Church and Congregation in West Bridgewater, Mass. To which is added, a friendly letter to said church and congregation on the pro-slavery influences that occasioned his removal. Conditions of obedience to the civil government : a discourse. Notes: "Boston: printed by John Wilson and Son, no. 22, School-Street."--Title page verso. "Letter to the First Church and congregation in West Bridgewater, Mass."--Pages 37-51. Includes bibliographical references. FAU copy in original paper wrappers; side stiched with cord. Presentation inscription from the author on front wrapper. ; Florida Atlantic University Libraries' Marvin and Sybil Weiner Spirit of America Collection, Pamphlets: Speeches B15F21 ; Florida Atlantic Digital Library Collections

This article suggests a rational explanation for extreme voluntary sacrifice in situations in which the state of the world when the decision must be made is observable only by the agent. Such explanation is the cult of martyrs, heroes, and saints. This cult may get out of control and fuel fanaticism, or excessive sacrifice from the standpoint of the sponsoring organization. A survey of the historical evidence of Christian martyrdom strongly suggests that martyrs were driven by the expectation of a cult in this world, not by otherworldly rewards. In particular, it is argued that the evidence of excess martyrdom in both Muslim Spain and the Roman Empire strongly speaks for the cult theory. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]

This study examines the intersections between religious practices and violence, and their representations. It explores how religious insurgents in Mexico have employed religious imagery and expression to foment or justify collective acts of violence. While close reading is my primary critical approach, I also draw on cultural studies, subaltern studies, and postcolonial studies to provide a framework for the interpretation of non-script cultural products (i.e. icons, relics, and bodies) and epistemologies; these instruments facilitate analysis of the broad range of cultural products produced by religious insurgents. My work dialogues with scholars who study religious insurgencies from multiple disciplines including anthropology, history, political science, and communication studies.

This article suggests a rational explanation for extreme voluntary sacrifice in situations in which the state of the world when the decision must be made is observable only by the agent. Such explanation is the cult of martyrs, heroes, and saints. This cult may get out of control and fuel fanaticism, or excessive sacrifice from the standpoint of the sponsoring organization. A survey of the historical evidence of Christian martyrdom strongly suggests that martyrs were driven by the expectation of a cult in this world, not by otherworldly rewards. In particular, it is argued that the evidence of excess martyrdom in both Muslim Spain and the Roman Empire strongly speaks for the cult theory.

This project considers how the psychological concept of locus of control can be applied to the manner in which early Christian martyrs interpreted their situation. Locus of control suggests that individuals have either an external locus of control, in which life is controlled by external sources, or an internal locus of control, in which the individual has control. Visions and dreams played a significant role in challenging the idea that the Roman government controlled the life of the martyr and shifts the locus of control away from the Romans onto the martyr. In this project, I will trace this dynamic through the visions represented in the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas.

"The Life of Stephen the Younger is one of the rare sources for Byzantium in the 'Dark Ages' and one of the key witnesses to the history of Iconoclasm. This book presents a new edition of the text, together with a French translation and commentary, and an important introduction. Stephen was a hermit, killed in 765 at the order of the emperor Constantine V; his Life was written in 809, some forty years after the 7th Ecumenical Council, Nicaea II, at which Orthodoxy was affirmed. Professor Auzepy shows how the Life reflects the politics of the era, both those of the patriarchate on which the author depended, and of the female monastery near which Stephen had lived, and transforms the probable victim of a failed political plot into a Christ-like figure martyred by a diabolic emperor. La Vie d'Etienne le Jeune est une des rares sources sur l'histoire de Byzance durant le Haut Moyen-Age et un temoignage majeur de la querelle iconoclaste. Cet ouvrage, comprenant une importante introduction, presente une nouvelle edition du texte, accompagnee d'une traduction francaise annotee. Etienne est un ermite qui fut assassine en 765 sur l'ordre de l'empereur Constantin V. Sa Vie fut ecrite en 809, une quarantaine d'annees apres le septieme concile Ecumenique de Nicee II, au cours duquel fut affirme l'Orthodoxie. Le professeur Auzepy demontre comment la Vie reflete les enjeux politiques de cette epoque, ceux du patriarcat dont l'auteur dependait comme ceux du monastere de femmes aupres duquel Etienne a vecu, et comment la Vie transforme son heros, probablement mis A mort dans le cadre d'un complot, en une figure de saint moine martyrise par un empereur diabolique. Winner of the "Prix Charles Diehl de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1999"."--Provided by publisher.

The Oratory of the Forty Martyrs occupies a strategic symbolical position between the Forum Romanum and the Palatine complexes. Its interior decoration is dominated by representations of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia, soldiers of the legendary Legio XII Fulminata. Would a cult to the Forty Martyrs, obviously prominent in the oratory, share any connotations with the pre-ecclesiastical use of the room as part of the vestibule complexes for the imperial residence on the Palatine hill? Though by no means complete, the information given in the primary sources tells of a continuous imperial virtual presence on the Palatine hill. A corresponding presence of the imperial scholae may well have been part of this continuity. The church complex of S. Maria Antiqua and the Oratory of the Forty Martyrs would have been the natural site for an official cult of the Forty Martyrs, and politically a timing for its introduction to Rome at the beginning of the seventh century would suit best.