James A. Kelhoffer examines an often overlooked aspect of New Testament
constructions of legitimacy, namely the value of Christians'
withstanding persecution as a means of corroborating their religious
identity as Christ's followers. The introductory chapter defines the
problem in interaction with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of
cultural capital. Chapters 2-10 examine the depictions of persecuted
Christians in the Pauline letters, First Peter, Hebrews, Revelation, the
NT Gospels, and Acts. These exegetical analyses support the conclusion
that assertions of standing, authority, and power claimed on the basis
of persecution play a significant and heretofore under-appreciated role
in much of the NT. It is also argued that depictions of persecution can
have both positive implications for the persecuted and negative
implications for the depicted persecutors in constructions of
legitimation.An epilogue considers later examples of early Christian
martyrs and confessors, as well as John Foxe's Book of Martyrs . The
epilogue also addresses the ethical and hermeneutical problem of
asserting the withstanding of persecution as a basis of legitimacy in
ancient and modern contexts. This problem stems from the observation
that, although the NT authors present their construals of withstanding
persecution as a basis of legitimation as if they were self-evident,
such assertions are actually the culmination of numerous presuppositions
and are therefore open to dissenting viewpoints. Yet the NT authors do
not acknowledge the possibility of competing interpretations, or that
oppressed Christians could someday become oppressors. Accordingly, this
exegetical study calls attention to an ethical and hermeneutical problem
that the NT bequeaths to the modern interpreter, a problem inviting
input from ethicists and other theologians.
