The Martyr’s Body
I’m still reading The Purple Crown: The Politics of Martyrdom by Tripp York. I’m slowly reading through chapter 2, Body: The Field of Combat. In this chapter York attempts to “examine how the early church attempted to reconfigure the body to better perform its doxological role. York says that the “the shaping of the body by liturgical formation and the witnessing of Christ through martyrdom are part of what it means to simultaneously praise God and reveal to the world who God is.”
The two following passages stuck out as very meaningful to me.
Though it may be difficult to understand how certain practices of the desert ascetics are supposed to enable them to be better disciples, it is significant to note that may of their biographers often refer to their bodies as ‘heavenly’ or ‘angelic.’ Many pilgrims who visited these ascetics, we are told, imagined that they were glimpsing a foretaste of the heavenly body. What is important about these ascetics is not whether they actually provide a glimpse of angelic bodies, but that they understood that if they were to live continuously in the presence of God, their very own materiality required transformation.
The Purple Crown, p. 55
It’s fascinating to me that pilgrims viewed the bodies of martyrs as “angelic” and a “foretaste of the heavenly body.” Amazing.
“The specific practices, rituals, and habits that constitute Christianity (including, but not limited to, prayer, hymn singing, baptism, Eucharist, works of mercy) shape the Christian body. For example, by praying, Christians take on new postures, literally, that aid in the creation of an open and vulnerable body toward God and others. By singing, Christians vocalize their praise that makes known the Christian’s allegiance. This allegiance, a new creation made possible by the revolutionary act of baptism, realigns our bodies away from the false idols of the market, state or family, and direct us toward God.”
The Purple Crown, p. 56
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