Subject Area
Religion
Abstract
In Augustine’s North Africa, when the likelihood of being a martyr virtually disappeared, various practices of martyr veneration were the means by which the church communed with the martyrs, obtained their intercessory aid, and experienced miracles associated with their relics. Augustine reflected upon the meaning of martyrdom in the midst of two unique contexts: 1) the socio-political context, in which the Roman empire had ceased persecuting the church and had adopted Nicene Christianity as the official religion of the empire, and 2) the ecclesial context, which included the martyr veneration practices inherited from preceding generations and the competing claims to the title “Church of the Martyrs” in the Donatist controversy. In light of these contexts, this dissertation explores: What is the significance of martyrdom and martyr veneration for Augustine? How did he understand what it means to be “the Church of the Martyrs?” And finally, how did he understand the relationship between the faithful on earth and the martyrs in heaven? More specifically, this dissertation will focus on how other significant aspects of Augustine’s theology bear upon his understanding of martyrdom and martyr veneration. These various loci include his theology of 1) Christ as the mediator between God and humanity; 2) salvation as a participation in the life of God; 3) Christ and his church as the totus Christus (“whole Christ”) united in the bond of charity; and 4) the afterlife, the second coming of Christ, and the final bodily resurrection of the saints. These deeply interrelated aspects of Augustine’s theology, I argue, are central to his understanding of martyrdom and martyr veneration. Also, they reveal that, for Augustine, the intercessory aid of the martyrs in heaven and the various practices of martyr veneration are efficacious for strengthening the pilgrim church’s participation in the life of God and in charity.
Degree Date
Spring 5-11-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Religious Studies
Advisor
Dr. James K. H. Lee
Number of Pages
331
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Esquivel, Matthew, "Participation in the Martyred Christ: Augustine of Hippo on Martyrdom and Martyr Veneration" (2024). Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations. 39.
https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds/39
