Nature and Free Will in the Theology of Martyrdom of the First Discourse on Martyrs

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the use of the ecclesiological metaphor of the stones and the Temple in the context of the symbolic theology of the Syriac Christian tradition. Then it proposes to understand the tension between Nature and Free Will in the theology of the First Discourse on the Martyrs, an encomium on Martyrs written by an anonymous author belonging to the Church of the East. In particular, we will argue that this theology was a direct response to dualistic cosmologies that understood the impulse towards martyrdom as the result of an absolute opposition to the material world.