Catholic Life and Practice

This Side of the Eschaton: Discerning Martyrdom’s Inner Logic

Ryan Duns, SJ

Abstract

Ryan Duns, SJ examines the theological development of Christian martyrdom, highlighting tensions between classical and contemporary interpretations. Drawing on David Tracy’s notion of “fragments,” martyrs are understood as revelatory frag-events that disrupt sin and disclose divine justice and mercy. Distinguishing “martyrs of confession” from “martyrs of action,” Duns applies Aristotelian propter quid and quia frameworks to discern authentic cases. He concludes by proposing a parabolic logic of martyrdom, portraying martyrs as living parables of God’s reign in history.

Citations

Lawrence Cunningham, “Non Poena sed Causa: A Contemporary Understanding of Martyrdom,” in Archbishop Romero: Martyr and Prophet for the New Millenium, ed. Robert Pelton (University of Scranton Press, 2006), 60.

Benedict XVI, Letter to the Participants of the Plenary Session of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, April 24, 2006, vatican.va.

“Video Shows Beheading of Copts at IS Hands; Egypt Declares Week of Mourning,” Ahram Online, February 15, 2015, https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/123128.aspx.

Jeanne Evans, ed., (Orbis Books, 2005), 195–96.

Jon Sobrino, “Our World: Cruelty and Compassion,” in Rethinking Martyrdom, 19.

Karl Rahner, “Dimensions of Martyrdom: A Plea for the Broadening of a Classical Concept,” in Martyrdom Today, Concilium 153, no. 3 (1983): 9–11.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp 9.3, in The Apostolic Fathers, ed. and trans. Bart Ehrman, vol. 1, I Clement, II Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Didache, Loeb Classical Library 24 (Harvard University Press, 2003), 381.

Lawrence Cunningham, “Christian Martyrdom: A Theological Perspective,” in Witness of the Body: The Past, Present, and Future of Christian Martyrdom, ed. Michael L. Budde and Karen Scott (Eerdmans, 2011), 19.

William R. Schoedel, trans., “Ignatius to the Romans,” in Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch, ed. Helmut Koester (Fortress Press, 1985), 178.

Lumen Gentium §42, in Vatican Council II, vol. 1, The Conciliar and Postconciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery (Costello, 1996), 400–401.

Gerhard Lohfink, Jesus of Nazareth, trans. Linda Maloney (Liturgical, 2012), 106.

David Tracy, Plurality and Ambiguity (University of Chicago Press, 1987), 75.

Benedict XVI, Causes of the Saints.

Karl Rahner, On the Theology of Death (Herder and Herder, 1961), 110.

Alfred Delp, Prison Writings (Orbis Books, 2004), 163.

Richard Simpson, Edmund Campion: A Biography (Williams and Norgate, 1867), 319.

Benedict XVI, Causes of the Saints

Stephen Pope, A Step Along the Way: Models of Christian Service (Orbis, 2015), 18.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae 2-2.124.5, trans. Alfred Freddoso, last modified August 5, 2025, https://www.freddoso.com/summa-translation/TOC.htm.

Thomas J. Heffernan, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (Oxford University Press, 2012), 126.

Ann Ball, Blessed Miguel Pro (TAN Books, 1996), 110.

Benedict XVI, Causes of the Saints.

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, “Homily at the Beatification of the ‘Martyrs of La Rioja,’” April 27, 2019, vatican.va.

James R. Brockman, Romero: A Life (Orbis, 2003), 248.

David Tracy, Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time (University of Chicago Press, 2020), 1.

Matthew Lundberg, Christian Martyrdom and Christian Violence: On Suffering and Wielding the Sword (Oxford University Press, 2021), 9.

José Ignacio González Faus, “Witnesses to Love, Killed by Hatred of Love,” trans. Paul Burns, in Rethinking Martyrdom, ed. Teresa Okure, Jon Sobrino, and Felix Wilfred, Concilium 2003/1 (SCM, 2003), 58–66, at 58.

Gerhard Lohfink, The Forty Parables of Jesus, trans. Linda Maloney (Liturgical, 2021), 231 (emphasis original).

Ryan Duns, “Reconfigured Through the Word: Jesus’s Parables and Metaxological Theopoetics,” in Heart of Flesh: William Desmond and the Bible, ed. Steven E. Knepper (Cascade, 2023), 85–102.

Augustine, Exposition 2 of Psalm 34, in Expositions of the Psalms, trans. Maria Boulding, ed. John Rotelle, vol. 2, Ps 33–50 (New City Press, 2000), 69.