Divine Deliverance: Pain and Painlessness in Early Christian Martyr Texts

"The author's readings of early Christian martyr texts suggest that Christians found the suffering self a useful discourse by which to construct their identities, distinguish their teachings, refute antagonistic claims, and retain believers. The author shows that in these texts, suffering is not embraced as an identity but presented as a problem to be solved. Pain is the experience of those who live apart from God. The author demonstrates that in the moments at issue in martyr texts--trial, torture, and death--the Christian self is decidedly not a sufferer. God's intervention miraculously transforms the physical experience. The torture that should hurt heals instead; the body that should be fragmented is, instead, made whole. The author concludes that in a world of sufferers, Christian martyrs serve as promises of another world where there is--existentially and not merely metaphorically--no pain"--Provided by publisher.