REL 253-4 : Foundations of Mission

In modern-day America, it is hard for Christians to imagine ever dying for their faith. And yet in To Share in the Body, author Craig Hovey challenges Christians to view martyrdom not as relegated to the past or to remote parts of the world but rather as having profound implications for Christian witness today. By examining the Gospel of Mark's recurring theme of martyrdom, Hovey argues that martyrdom is a critical aspect of the gospel and therefore crucial to how the church today remembers martyrs and understands Christian discipleship.

"The only good Christian is a dead Christian."In our heated cultural environment, comments like this are increasingly common. Sometimes Christians are too quick to claim that they are being persecuted. But Christians aren't just being paranoid or alarmist. Anti-Christian hostility is real. Among some circles, opposition to Christianity manifests much like other historic prejudices like anti-Semitism or racial discrimination. Yancey unpacks the underlying perspectives and root causes of Christianophobia, and he considers to what extent Christians have themselves contributed to anti-Christian hostility.

On October 29, 2005, three Indonesian schoolgirls were beheaded as they walked to school -- targeted because they were Christian. Like them, many Christians around the world suffer violence or discrimination for their faith. In fact, more Christians than people of any other faith group now live under threat. Rupert Shortt investigates the shocking treatment of Christians on several continents and exposes the extent of official collusion. The book is replete with relevant historical background to place events within their appropriate political and social context.

From Iraq and Egypt to Sudan and Nigeria, from Indonesia to the Indian subcontinent, Christians in the early 21st century are the world's most persecuted religious group. In effect, our era is witnessing the rise of a new generation of martyrs.

It can be said, that martyrdom has become one of the most pressing theological issues facing the contemporary world. As long as individuals have been dying for their faith or cause, others have been telling and more importantly, interpreting their stories. The way these stories are recounted - positively or negatively - reflect a wider conflict in which the narrator and his community find themselves. Martyr narratives, whether textual, oral, or even a CNN news report, do more than simply report a death; they also contain the interpretative framework by which that death is understood - again positively or negatively. This book aims to illuminate the way these conflict stories have been told and function (principally, though not exclusively) within Christian, Jewish, and Islamic communities.

Islam contains manifold concepts of martyrdom, some of which link ''bearing witness'' to faith and God. Martyrdom is also central to the Christian tradition, not only in the form of Christ's Passion or saints faced with persecution and death, but in the duty to lead a good and charitable life. The essays of this volume illuminate these legacies, following - Christian martyrdom from its origins in the Roman world, to the experience of the deaths of ''terrorist'' leaders of the French Revolution, to parallels in the contemporary world - and explore historical parallels in Islamic, Christian, and secular traditions. The book provides a comparative history of the practices and discourses of terrorism and martyrdom from antiquity to the twenty-first century.

Concilium has long been a household-name for cutting-edge critical and constructive theological thinking. Past contributors include leading Catholic scholars such as Hans Küng, Gregory Baum and Edward Schillebeeckx, and the editors of the review belong to the international "who's who" in the world of contemporary theology. Published five times a year, each issue reflects a deep knowledge and scholarship presented in a highly readable style, and each issue offers a wide variety of viewpoints from leading thinkers from all over the world

"Everywhere militants were blowing up Christians, their churches, their shops. They threatened them with kidnapping. They promised to take their children. The message to these 'infidels': You have no place in Iraq. Pay a penalty to stay, leave, or be killed."Sweeping from Syria into Iraq, Islamic State fighters (ISIS) have been brutalizing and annihilating Christians. For more than a decade, journalist Mindy Belz has reported on the ground from the Middle East, giving her unparalleled access to the story no one wants to believe. She brings the stark reality of this escalating genocide to light, tracking the stories of real-life Christians who refuse to abandon their faith--even in the face of losing everything, including their lives.