Paper short abstract:

In my contribution I will argue that the early Christian martyr acts contain important narrative and emotional technologies to mobilise their audiences to die for Christ.

Paper long abstract:

Although the exact nature of the Roman persecutions of the early Christians remains a source of debate, the fact itself is not in doubt. But why would early Christians be willing to die for Christ when there was no pre-existent tradition of people willing to die for a god? In a much-quoted article, Scott Atran has drawn attention to the phenomenon of the ‘devoted actor’, that is, people who are willing to make extraordinary sacrifices for a cause. These ‘actors’ are often driven by sacred values that are embodied in tight social networks of ‘imagined kin’, and their self-identity becomes subsumed with that of the collective group. The total devotion to Christ constituted a truly sacred value for the early Christians, who often called themselves ‘slaves of Christ’ to denote their total devotion and their obedience to him. But how were they trained in this devotion? In my contribution I will argue that the early Christian martyr acts contain important narrative and emotional technologies to mobilise their audiences in this respect. These narratives showed the early Christians how to behave when faced with the choice to sacrifice to the pagan gods or to die for Christ. By giving examples of Christians who failed the test but also showing the rewards for those who endured, the acts illustrate the right way to perform the ideal total devotion.