Persecution, Persuasion and Power: Readiness to Withstand by James A. Kelhoffer

James A. Kelhoffer examines a frequently disregarded element of latest testomony structures of legitimacy, specifically the 'value' of Christians' withstanding persecution as a way of corroborating their spiritual id as Christ's fans. The introductory bankruptcy defines the matter in interplay with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's proposal of 'cultural capital.' Chapters 2-10 research the depictions of persecuted Christians within the Pauline letters, First Peter, Hebrews, Revelation, the NT Gospels, and Acts. those exegetical analyses aid the belief that assertions of status, authority, and tool claimed at the foundation of persecution play an important and heretofore under-appreciated function in a lot of the NT. it's also argued that depictions of persecution could have either confident implications for the persecuted and damaging implications for the depicted persecutors in structures of legitimation.An epilogue considers later examples of early Christian martyrs and confessors, in addition to John Foxe's ' Book of Martyrs .' The epilogue additionally addresses the moral and hermeneutical challenge of saying the withstanding of persecution as a foundation of legitimacy in old and smooth contexts. This challenge stems from the statement that, even supposing the NT authors current their construals of withstanding persecution as a foundation of legitimation as though they have been self-evident, such assertions are literally the end result of diverse presuppositions and are hence open to dissenting viewpoints. but the NT authors don't recognize the opportunity of competing interpretations, or that oppressed Christians may sometime develop into oppressors. therefore, this exegetical research calls recognition to a moral and hermeneutical challenge that the NT bequeaths to the trendy interpreter, an issue inviting enter from ethicists and different theologians.