Church and Mission: Quick Reflection from Class on 10/19/09

In Monday's class we finished up discussing the characteristics of church in the first century and began discussing some of the cultural and historical context of the second century (mainly talking about Pliny the Younger and the spurts of persecution faced by Christians). One martyr, a young woman named Perpetua, insisted upon her own death at a time in which Christians were not actively being persecuted in North Africa (where she was), which made me wonder a bit about why. What were her purposes in this? No one seemed to want to execute her (as she herself admitted in her diary), yet she insisted. But if no one really wanted to kill her, how much of a martyr is she really? Why would she give her life when no one was seeking to take it? To my Western, utilitarian mind I see little purpose in it. I suppose it was to make a statement, but it just seems so bizarre to me to seek further persecution than that which you face.