Notre Dame professor tackles ‘myth’ of Christian martyrdom

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Notre Dame professor tackles ‘myth’ of Christian martyrdom
By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo News | The Lookout

Candida Moss, a professor of early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame and a practicing Catholic, wants to shatter what she calls the “myth” of martyrdom in the Christian faith.
Sunday school tales of early Christians being rounded up at their secret catacomb meetings and thrown to the lions by evil Romans are mere fairy tales, Moss writes in a new book. In fact, in the first 250 years of Christianity, Romans mostly regarded the religion's practitioners as meddlesome members of a superstitious cult.
The government actively persecuted Christians for only about 10 years, Moss suggests, and even then intermittently. And, she says, many of the best known early stories of brave Christian martyrs were entirely fabricated.
 
Actually, this was the story I was always taught. Note that this statement applies only to official Government of Rome persecutions and only in the first 250 years. The wikipedia article gives specific dates. Persecution of Christians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Many other persecutions were not official, or occurred well after the 250 year limit (280AD).
 
Yeah Ive heard all sorts of things like christins were thrown in hot oil and cooked alive, fed weekly to ravenous animals and all of this happening for decades...im sorry but if that were the case there werent that many christians to begin with and they probably all would have died out eventually...
 
livingepistle said:
Notre Dame professor tackles ‘myth’ of Christian martyrdom
By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo News | The Lookout

Candida Moss, a professor of early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame and a practicing Catholic, wants to shatter what she calls the “myth” of martyrdom in the Christian faith.
Sunday school tales of early Christians being rounded up at their secret catacomb meetings and thrown to the lions by evil Romans are mere fairy tales, Moss writes in a new book. In fact, in the first 250 years of Christianity, Romans mostly regarded the religion's practitioners as meddlesome members of a superstitious cult.
The government actively persecuted Christians for only about 10 years, Moss suggests, and even then intermittently. And, she says, many of the best known early stories of brave Christian martyrs were entirely fabricated.
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So where does she get this idea? Where's she get her info?
 
Its the mentality of a lot of Christians sadly if you dont agree with them theyre being persecuted. This paranoid thinking and the desperation to make one feel more important causes a lot of fake stories and exaggerations.
 
JesusChica1991 said:
Liberalism. What do you expect? It is Notre Dame after all.
Click to expand...

:cool: You express my personal sentiments concerning this article. Another observation is that these types of beliefs are beginning to increase in numbers and enter main stream media. Very subtle undermining of God's word.
 
raf said:
Its the mentality of a lot of Christians sadly if you dont agree with them theyre being persecuted. This paranoid thinking and the desperation to make one feel more important causes a lot of fake stories and exaggerations.
Click to expand...

So you're actually believing this? That christians were not persecuted and killed by lions in early Rome? Because some Notre Dame professor supposedly said so? Don't be so freaking gullible! Look into things yourself! Anybody can make any kind of claim, especially on the net! And this is one of the most ridiculous claims I've ever heard of. So this (supposed) professor suddenly came up with proof that this recorded historical event never happened? Let's see the proof. Put it out there.
 
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livingepistle said:
:cool: You express my personal sentiments concerning this article. Another observation is that these types of beliefs are beginning to increase in numbers and enter main stream media. Very subtle undermining of God's word.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for the veracity of any particular story from the 3rd century without researching it,
but I have personally known Christians, in my lifetime, who HAVE been murdered for their faith.

Martyrdom, as a general concept, is not a fairy tale.
Just because it isn't happening in the U.S. on Park Avenue, doesn't mean it isn't happening.
 
also since people are apparently getting heated, lets be honest with ourselves this happened 2000 years ago or so. who cares?
 
I was studying at one of UK's top universities and thought wow, little old me, this is fantastic, thank you God....but then I found it harder and harder to remain there due to the teaching. One day my professor said with all sincerity to me ( a Christian, in the Theology department) a lovely lady ( just somewhat deluded:) that my paper was very interesting but really, did I not see that if Jesus had died in His bed, exactly the same things would have been achieved. There was no need for the cross, the blood, none at all. I left & my peace was restored !! So, nothing surprises me, especially when it's from a supposedly 'Christian' university. It's a well known comment that if you study theology at university, your faith be tested rather than watered. God Bless, <><
 
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