Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-323) and index.
Collective memory and the meanings of the past -- Performing persectution, theorizing martyrdom -- The martyr's memory: autobiography and self-writing in Ignatius, Perpetua, and Pionius -- Martyrdom and the spectacle of suffering -- Layers of verbal and visual memory: commemorating Thecla the protomartyr -- Religion as a chain of memory: Cassie Bernall of Columbine High and the American legacy of early Christian martyrdom.
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"Martyrs are produced, Elizabeth Castelli suggests, not by the lived experience of particular historical individuals but by the stories that are later told about them. And the formulaic character of stories about past suffering paradoxically serves specific theological, cultural, or political ends in the present. Martyrdom and Memory explores the central role of persecution in the early development of Christian idea, institutions, and cultural forms and shows how the legacy of Christian martyrdom plays out in today's world."--Jacket.