New Title Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church By W.H.C. Frend The definitive survey of martyrdom and persecution during the first four centuries of the Church. ISBN-13: 9780227172292 Specifications: 229x152mm, 648pp, Paperback Price: £30.00 • US$62.50 Publication: March 2008 Order this Title Now

About this Book

Although the story of the triumphant rise of Christianity has often been told, it was a triumph achieved through blood and tribulation. The literal meaning of the term martyr meant witness, but among early Christians it quickly acquired a harsher meaning – one who died for the faith – and that witness through death was responsible for many conversions, including those of Justin Martyr, himself to offer just such witness, and perhaps Tertullian.

Persecution was seen by early Christians, as by later historians, as one of the crucial infl uences on the growth and development of the early Church and Christian beliefs. Why did the Roman Empire persecute Christians? Why did thousands of Christians not merely accept but welcome martyrdom?

In his classic work, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, the late W.H.C. Frend explores the mindset of those who suffered persecution as well as the motivation of those who persecuted them. He shows the critical importance for early Christians of Jewish ideas, influenced heavily as they were by the story of Daniel and the trauma of the revolt of the Maccabeean. He argues that the Christian concept of martyrdom, so highly regarded among early Christians, can only be understood as springing from Jewish roots.

Frend explores a number of major persecutions, such as that in Lyons in the second century, the Decian Persecution in the third, and the Great Persecution under Diocletian in the fourth, showing both the common themes and the variations, and examines also the relationship between the heavenly kingdom of Christ and the rule of the earthly emperor. In doing so he shows how the persecutions formed an essential part in a providential philosophy of history that has profoundly influenced European political thought.

About the Author

Professor William H.C. Frend devoted more than fifty years to the study of the Early Church and was one of the foremost church historians of the English-speaking world. He was Dean of the Divinity Faculty of the University of Glasgow from 1972 to 1975, and is Bye-Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Glasgow. He is also the author of: The Donatist Church, The Early Church, The Archaeology of Early Christianity, Saints and Sinners in the Early Church and The Rise of Christianity.

Other titles available by W.H.C. Frend:
The Rise of the Monophysite Movement

Related Titles

Other titles in the Library of Ecclesiastical History Series include:

The Beginnings of Western Christendom by Leonard Elliott-Binns
Church and People in an Industrial City by Edward Wickham
The Christian Understanding of History by Eric Rust
The Churchmanship of St Cyprian by George Walker
Coverdale and his Bibles by J.F. Mozley
Documents of the English Reformation by Gerald Bray
The Early Evangelicals: A Religious and Social Study by Leonard Elliott-Binns
Forerunners of the Reformation: The Shape of Late Medieval Thought by Heiko Augustinus Oberman
Islam and Christian Theology (4 Volume Set) by James Sweetman
The Oracles of God: An Introduction to the Preaching of John Calvin by Thomas Parker
Planting of Christianity in Africa (4 Volume Set) by Charles Pelham Groves
The Progress of Dogma by James Orr
Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel: Puritan Eschatology 1600 to 1660 by Peter Toon (editor)
Reformation Writings of Martin Luther (2 Volume Set) by Martin Luther
Reformation Views of Church History by Glanmor Williams
Religion in the Victorian Era by Leonard Elliott-Binns
Sermons on Isaiah's Prophecy of the Death and Passion of Christ by John Calvin
The Theology of Calvin by Wilhelm Niesel