Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

=====Voluntary martyrdom=====
[[File:Martyrdom and persecution of Christians by the Romans. Woodc Wellcome V0033591.jpg|thumb|Woodcut illustration for the 1570 edition of [[John Foxe]]'s [[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|''Book of Martyrs'']] showing the "persecutions of the primitive Church under the heathen tyrants of Rome" and depicting the "sundry kinds of torments devised against the Christians"]]
Some early Christians sought out and welcomed martyrdom.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ide|first1=Arthur Frederick|url=https://archive.org/details/martyrdomofwomen0000idea|title=Martyrdom of Women: A Study of Death Psychology in the Early Christian Church to 301 CE|last2=Smith|first2=John Paul|publisher=Tangelwuld|year=1985|isbn=978-0-930383-49-7|location=Garland|page=[https://archive.org/details/martyrdomofwomen0000idea/page/21 21]|author-link2=John Paul Smith|url-access=registration}} apud {{cite book|last1=deMause|first1=Lloyd|title=The Emotional Life of Nations|publisher=Karnac|year=2002|isbn=1-892746-98-0|location=New York|chapter=Ch. 9. The Evolution of Psyche and Society. Part III.|quote=Both Christians and Jews "engaged in a contest and reflection about the new-fangled practice of martyrdom,"<sup>191</sup> even unto suicide...and Augustine spoke of "the mania for self-destruction" of early Christians.<sup>192</sup> But the Christians, following Tertullian's dicta that "martyrdom is required by God," forced their own martyrdom so they could die in an ecstatic trance: "Although their tortures were gruesome, the martyrs did not suffer, enjoying their analgesic state."<sup>195</sup><br />192. Arthur J. Droge and James D. Tabor, A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992, p. 5.<br />193. Arthur F. Ide, Martyrdom of Women: A Study of Death Psychology in the Early Christian Church to 301 CE. Garland: Tangelwuld, 1985, p. 21.<br />194. Ibid., p. 136.<br />195. Ibid., pp. 146, 138.|author-link1=Lloyd deMause|chapter-url=http://primal-page.com/ps3.htm}}</ref><ref>Boyarin, Daniel. ''Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999, p. 40.</ref> According to Droge and Tabor, "in 185 the proconsul of Asia, Arrius Antoninus, was approached by a group of Christians demanding to be executed. The proconsul obliged some of them and then sent the rest away, saying that if they wanted to kill themselves there was plenty of rope available or cliffs they could jump off."<ref>{{cite book  |last1=Droge |first1=Arthur J. |url=https://archive.org/details/nobledeathsuicid00drog/page/136 |title=A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity |last2=Tabor |first2=James D. |date=November 1992 |publisher=HarperSanFrancisco |isbn=978-0-06-062095-0 |location=San Francisco |page=[https://archive.org/details/nobledeathsuicid00drog/page/136 136] |author-link2=James D. Tabor}} Misquoted as Groge and Tabor (1992:136) by C. Douzinas in {{cite book|last1=Closs Stephens|first1=Angharad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2cAF2OQ7RkC&pg=PA198|title=Terrorism and the Politics of Response|last2=Vaughan-Williams|first2=Nick|author3=Douzinas, C.|publisher=Routledge|year=2009|isbn=978-0-415-45506-0|location=Oxon and New York|page=198}}</ref> Such enthusiasm for death is found in the letters of [[Saint Ignatius of Antioch]], who was arrested and condemned as a criminal before writing his letters while on the way to execution. Ignatius casts his own martyrdom as a voluntary eucharistic sacrifice to be embraced.<ref name="Candida Moss"/>{{rp|55}}

"Many martyr acts present martyrdom as a sharp choice that cut to the core of Christian identity – life or death, salvation or damnation, Christ or apostacy..."<ref name="Candida Moss">{{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Candida R. |title=Ancient Christian Martyrdom Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions |date=2012 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300154658}}</ref>{{rp|145}} Subsequently, the martyr literature has drawn distinctions between those who were enthusiastically pro-voluntary-martyrdom (the [[Montanism|Montanists]] and [[Donatism|Donatists]]), those who occupied a neutral, moderate position (the orthodox), and those who were anti-martyrdom (the [[Gnostic Christianity|Gnostics]]).<ref name="Candida Moss"/>{{rp|145}}

The category of voluntary martyr began to emerge only in the third century in the context of efforts to justify flight from persecution.<ref name="Moss journal">Moss, Candida R. "The Discourse of Voluntary Martyrdom: Ancient and Modern.” Church History, vol. 81, no. 3, 2012, pp. 531–551., www.jstor.org/stable/23252340. Retrieved 23 January 2021.</ref> The condemnation of voluntary martyrdom is used to justify Clement fleeing the Severan persecution in Alexandria in 202 AD, and the ''Martyrdom of Polycarp'' justifies Polycarp's flight on the same grounds. "Voluntary martyrdom is parsed as passionate foolishness" whereas "flight from persecution is patience" and the result a true martyrdom.<ref name="Candida Moss"/>{{rp|155}}

[[Daniel Boyarin]] rejects use of the term "voluntary martyrdom", saying, "if martyrdom is not voluntary, it is not martyrdom".<ref name="Daniel Boyarin">{{cite book |last1=Boyarin |first1=Daniel |title=Dying for God Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism |year=1999 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804737043 |page=121}}</ref> [[G. E. M. de Ste. Croix]] adds a category of "quasi-voluntary martyrdom": "martyrs who were not directly responsible for their own arrest but who, after being arrested, behaved with" a stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority.<ref name="Candida Moss"/>{{rp|153}} [[Candida Moss]] asserts that De Ste. Croix's judgment of what values are worth dying for is modern, and does not represent classical values. According to her there was no such concept as "quasi-volunteer martyrdom" in ancient times.<ref name="Candida Moss"/>{{rp|153}}