Reading Saving Paradise: Chapter 3, Part I

Chapter 3 explores the meaning of martyrdom:

A well-lit corridor in the Catacomb of St Priscilla, Rome  

When the lights go out, the dark is overwhelming.

Early Christian beliefs about the dead reflected Hebrew, Greek and Roman cultures. In all these cultures, the beloved dead were believed to return in dreams, visions, memories and stories told by their descendents.  

For oppressed people, it was especially important to know that loved ones killed by unjust rulers would rise again. Inter-testamental literature (written in the first and second centuries BC) reflects a growing belief in the resurrection of the dead, and the New Testament book of Hebrews, written before the end of the first century, sees the assembly of departed saints as a ‘cloud of witnesses’ surrounding the living. (See Hebrews 12:1f)

A fresco of a funeral Eucharist 

Catacomb of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, Via Labicana, Rome

Funeral Eucharists were common, but whenever Christians gathered to celebrate the Eucharist, they believed they were encompassed by this cloud of witnesses.  From their eternal abodes, the dead could still bless and guide the living.

By the 3rd century, the realm of the dead was seen as a place of beauty and peace.  The dead could rest where Satan could not enter, and they could still give guidance and comfort to the living. 

The catacombs, where the dead were laid to rest, became a canvas for Christian art.

Fresco of Mary and the Child Jesus, 2nd century
  Believed to be the oldest image of the Madonna. 

Catacomb of St Priscilla. 

 The beliefs of the early Christians shine through the images painted and inscribed in the catacombs.

The images also highlight the power of God to protect the faithful in times of violent repression.  Early death plagued the Roman world – life expectancy in the 1st century was 25 – and in the 3rd century, empire-wide persecutions of Christians erupted. 

The shepherd became the model for Christian leadership. The attentive, personal care of a shepherd (as seen in the prophet Ezekiel and in John’s gospel) differed from the remote imperial model of military control and political authority.  Church leaders were expected to model themselves on the shepherd, not the political leader.

 Statue of the Good Shepherd, c. 300 

Now in the Vatican Museum

 

By the 3rd century, Christian leaders were creating social networks in cities throughout the empire.  The success of these pastoral networks increasingly threatened the empire’s bread-and-circus strategies of welfare and violent entertainment.  Rome responded by killing Christian leaders, which led to speculation about who – or what – survived death in the afterlife.  

What happens when we die? 

Some teachers (such as Tertullian) highly valued the body and argued that paradise was found in the material life of creation; there could be no residence in paradise without a body.  Other teachers (such as Origen) understood paradise spiritually, leaving material existence behind as the soul journeyed to God.  But though Tertullian and Origen held contrasting views of resurrection, both affirmed that persecution could not sever the connection between the living and the dead. 

Early Christians did not regard martyrs as victims, but as people who manifested the power of God.  (The word ‘martyr’ means ‘witness.’)    

Martyrs were important inspirations of faith for many Christians, and their tombs became points of contact with those who had faced Roman violence...

Please go to the next post:

Reading Chapter 3, Part II

(Perpetua)