Christian Martyrdom and Political Violence A Comparative Theology with Judaism and Islam

In recent years, martyrdom and political violence have been conflated in the public imagination. Rubén Rosario Rodríguez argues that martyr narratives deserve consideration as resources for resisting political violence in contemporary theological reflection. Underlying the three Abrahamic monotheistic traditions is a shared belief that God requires liberation for the oppressed, justice for the victims and, most demanding of all, love for the political enemy. Christian, Jewish and Muslim martyr narratives that condone political violence - whether terrorist or state-sponsored - are examined alongside each religion's canon, in order to evaluate how central or marginalized these discourses are within their respective traditions. Primarily a work of Christian theology in conversation with Judaism and Islam, this book aims to model religious pluralism and cooperation by retrieving distinctly Christian sources that nurture tolerance and facilitate coexistence, while respecting religious difference.

1. Scripture and political violence; 2. Early Christian martyrdom and political violence; 3. Comparative martyrologies; 4. Martyrdom or political violence?; 5. On becoming a 'faithful witness' today.

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology in the Department of Theological Studies at St Louis University, Missouri. His first book, Racism and God-Talk: A Latino/a Perspective (2008), won the 2011 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award for Theology. He has contributed to two recent collections, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Latino/a Theology (2015) and Immigrant Neighbors among Us: Immigration across Theological Traditions (2015), and is editor for the forthcoming T&T Clark Companion to Political Theology.