Matthew J Recla
Biographic Data
| ID | 7547518 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew J Recla |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew J |
| FAMILY NAME | Recla |
| SIGNATURE | RECLA M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boise State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4094-7878 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 4 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 4 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Pathology, identity, or both? Making meaning from early Christian martyrdom
Partly in response to an earlier ‘pathological approach’ that seemingly stigmatised early Christian martyrdom, recent scholarship has adopted an ‘identity approach’ that explains martyrdom as a normative discourse of self-construction. This explanation of martyrdom as Christian identity-making, not willing death, is insufficient for three reasons. First, this approach implicitly reaffirms the theological claim that religious identity alone makes …
Fields of Blood
Autothanatos
Martyrdom is popularly understood as a selfless act, an act of self-sacrifice. In contrast, I argue that martyrdom is first an act of self-formation. To make this claim, I propose two theses. The first is that the most ubiquitous and yet, paradoxically, most overlooked difference of the martyr is the death. The second is that, in keeping with the qualitative difference of the death, martyrdom is a violent action. Connecting these two theses, I re…
Homo profanus
The martyr is a potent symbol of sacrifice in Western cultural discourse. Understanding martyrdom as sacrifice, however, blunts the potency of the martyr's action. It obscures the violence by which the martyr's death becomes, paradoxically, a means to define institutional life. In this article, I propose an analogous relationship between the early Christian martyr and Giorgio Agamben's enigmatic homo sacer. Like homo sacer, the Christian martyr p…
Homo profanus
The martyr is a potent symbol of sacrifice in Western cultural discourse. Understanding martyrdom as sacrifice, however, blunts the potency of the martyr's action. It obscures the violence by which the martyr's death becomes, paradoxically, a means to define institutional life. In this article, I propose an analogous relationship between the early Christian martyr and Giorgio Agamben's enigmatic homo sacer. Like homo sacer, the Christian martyr p…
Autothanatos
Martyrdom is popularly understood as a selfless act, an act of self-sacrifice. In contrast, I argue that martyrdom is first an act of self-formation. To make this claim, I propose two theses. The first is that the most ubiquitous and yet, paradoxically, most overlooked difference of the martyr is the death. The second is that, in keeping with the qualitative difference of the death, martyrdom is a violent action. Connecting these two theses, I re…
Autothanatos
Martyrdom is popularly understood as a selfless act, an act of self-sacrifice. In contrast, I argue that martyrdom is first an act of self-formation. To make this claim, I propose two theses. The first is that the most ubiquitous and yet, paradoxically, most overlooked difference of the martyr is the death. The second is that, in keeping with the qualitative difference of the death, martyrdom is a violent action. Connecting these two theses, I re…
Homo profanus
The martyr is a potent symbol of sacrifice in Western cultural discourse. Understanding martyrdom as sacrifice, however, blunts the potency of the martyr's action. It obscures the violence by which the martyr's death becomes, paradoxically, a means to define institutional life. In this article, I propose an analogous relationship between the early Christian martyr and Giorgio Agamben's enigmatic homo sacer. Like homo sacer, the Christian martyr p…
Fields of Blood
Pathology, identity, or both? Making meaning from early Christian martyrdom
Partly in response to an earlier ‘pathological approach’ that seemingly stigmatised early Christian martyrdom, recent scholarship has adopted an ‘identity approach’ that explains martyrdom as a normative discourse of self-construction. This explanation of martyrdom as Christian identity-making, not willing death, is insufficient for three reasons. First, this approach implicitly reaffirms the theological claim that religious identity alone makes …
Martyr (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Theology (3 works) · Epistemology (2 works) · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis (2 works) · Law (2 works) · Political science (2 works) · Sociology (2 works) · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies (2 works) · Aesthetics (1 works)