Living Martyrs in Late Antiquity and Beyond : Surviving Martyrdom

This book demonstrates that living martyrdom was an important spiritual aspiration in the late antique Latin west and argues that, consequently, attempts to define, study, or locate martyrdom must move away from conceptualizations that require or center on death. After an introduction that traces the persistence of "living martyrs" as real objects of spiritual devotion and emulation across the span of Christian history and discusses why such martyrs have been overlooked, the book focuses on three significant authors from the late ancient Latin west for whom martyrdom did not require death: the Spanish poet Prudentius (c. 348–413), the senator-turned-ascetic Paulinus of Nola (353–431), and the influential North African bishop Augustine of Hippo (354–430). Through historically and literarily contextualized close readings of their work, this book shows that each of these three authors attempted to create a new paradigm of martyrdom focused on living, rather than dying, for God. By focusing on these living martyrs, we are able to see more clearly the aspirations and agendas of those who promoted them as martyrs and how their martyrological discourse illuminates the variety of ways that martyrdom is and can be mobilized (in any era) to construct new, community-creating worldviews. Living Martyrs in Late Antiquity and Beyond is an important resource for historians of Christianity, scholars of religious studies, and anyone interested in exploring or understanding martyrological discourse. The Introduction of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. This book shows that living martyrdom was an important spiritual aspiration in the late antique Latin west. It studies three authors who attempted to create a new paradigm of martyrdom focused on living, rather than dying, for God. Suitable for those interested in Christian history, religious studies, and martyrological discourse. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Tables 10 Abbreviations 11 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: Rethinking Martyrdom 16 Living Martyrs 16 Living Martyrs in Christian History 18 Chapter Summary 22 Reading and Receiving the Creation of Martyrial Consciousness 23 Rethinking Martyrdom 26 Surviving Martyrdom 30 1. Destabilizing Death: Prudentius’s Peristephanon 38 Prudentius the Poet 41 Quirinus: Destabilizing Death Through the Desire to Die 43 Vincent: Destabilizing Death Through Ambiguity and Overkill 46 Encratis, Gaius, and Crementius: Caesaraugusta’s Living Martyrs 53 Conclusion 57 2. Modeling the Living Martyr: Witness in and Through Poetry 66 Techniques of Exegetical Poetry 67 Witness in the Peristephanon 70 Peristephanon 10: Modeling the Living Martyr 89 The Martyrdom of Witness 98 3. Paulinus of Nola and the Living Martyr 93 108 Paulinus of Nola: Life and Writings 111 Paulinus on Living Martyrs 113 Constructing Martyrs 115 What Makes a Martyr? 123 Embodied Reorientation to God 129 Conclusion 132 4. Making Martyrs in the Nolan Countryside 142 The Martyr as Model and the Ethic of Imitation 143 Universal Principles 155 Rhetoric, Rather than Persecution 156 Witness in Paulinus 164 Conclusion 168 5. Non Poena Sed Causa 176 Augustine on the Martyrs 179 Martyrdom without Death 183 Death-Centered Martyrdom? 195 Living Martyrdom in Polemical Context 207 Conclusion 211 6. Augustine and the Life of Martyrdom 228 The Life of Martyrdom 229 Rehearsing the Life of Martyrdom 241 Making Martyrs through Rhetoric 246 Conclusion 254 Conclusion: Surviving Martyrdom: History, Historiography, and Power 264 History: Martyrs Survive 265 Historiography: Editing our “Search Terms” 268 Power: Martyrdom’s Survival; Surviving Martyrdom 270 Bibliography 276 Index 290 Martyrdom;,Martyrs;,Christian;,Prudentius’s;,Peristephanon;,Death;,Paulinus;,Nola;,Augustine;,Poena;,Rhetoric;,Polemical;,Exegetical;,Encratis;,Gaius;,Crementius;,Overkill;,Ambiguity Martyrdom,Martyrs,Christian,Prudentius’s,Peristephanon,Death,Paulinus,Nola,Augustine,Poena,Rhetoric,Polemical,Exegetical,Encratis,Gaius,Crementius,Overkill,Ambiguity "This book demonstrates that living martyrdom was an important spiritual aspiration in the late antique Latin west, and argues that, consequently, attempts to define, study, or locate martyrdom must move away from conceptualizations that require or center on death. After an introduction that traces the persistence of "living martyrs" as real objects of spiritual devotion and emulation across the span of Christian history and discusses why such martyrs have been overlooked, the book focuses on three significant authors from the late ancient Latin west for whom martyrdom did not require death: the Spanish poet Prudentius (c. 348-413), the senator-turned-ascetic Paulinus of Nola (353-431), and the influential North African bishop Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Through historically and literarily contextualized close readings of their work, this book shows that each of these three authors attempted to create a new paradigm of martyrdom focused on living, rather than dying, for God. By focusing on these living martyrs we are able to see more clearly the aspirations and agendas of those who promoted them as martyrs, and how their martyrological discourse illuminates the variety of ways that martyrdom is and can be mobilized (in any era) to construct new, community-creating worldviews. Living Martyrs in Late Antiquity is an important resource for historians of Christianity, scholars of religious studies, and anyone interested in exploring or understanding martyrological discourse"-- Provided by publisher This chapter outlines the historical and historiographical inaccuracy of privileging definitions of martyrdom that center on death, and situates this argument within the current scholarly conversation. It establishes both the academic consensus that "real" martyrdom requires death and the record of living martyrs in Christian history that proves that consensus wrong: indeed, living martyrs persist as real objects of spiritual devotion and emulation across the span of Christian history, not just in late antiquity. I introduce the main players in the book (Prudentius [c. 348-413], Paulinus of Nola [353-431], and Augustine [354-430]), summarize the subsequent chapters, explicate my methodology (close readings informed by literary-historical context; a heuristic of tripartite witness; multiple means of assessing potential reception), and discuss various objections-including the existence of the category of confessors and the habits of mind and scholarship that have resulted in our failure to recognize living martyrs as martyrs, plain and simple