With the release of Ridley Scott's "Gladiator II," audiences will be plunged back into the cinematic excitement of the Roman amphitheater so vividly captured in its predecessor, "Gladiator." Scott's ...

Rethinking persecution and martyrdom in the early church. Instead of focusing on what makes a martyr, Moss asks in ACM how martyrs are created, drawing attention to the symbiotic connection between ...

Only three Christian martyrs are described as Byzantine soldiers, but all were honored as warrior saints who lived during ...

‘The Church grew at a steady rate of 40% per decade,’ says Mike Aquilina, ‘and all that happened at a time when the practice of the faith was a capital crime.’ Cover of ‘Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: ...

Sixty-one of the world’s 196 nations actively persecute Christians who, ostracized, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, raped and murdered, stay just as determined to hold onto to their faith as the ...

Karen L. King is Professor of New Testament Studies and the History of Ancient Christianity at Harvard University in the Divinity School. She has published widely in the areas of Gnosticism, ancient ...

MY LIFE FOR MY SHEEP (341 pp.)—Alfred Duggan—Coward-McCann ($5). Martyrs are rarely popular. Their persecutors, haunted by persistent ghosts, find them stronger in death than in life. Their fellow ...

Robyn J. Whitaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...