Diane Shane Fruchtman is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey.

"Though others have written about the interweaving of Christian identity and martyrdom and the inculcation of a martyrological way-of-life, there is a welcome sharpness to Fruchtman’s work that refines the terms and allows readers to see the stakes... Fruchtman’s detailed study of the role of martyrial consciousness in Christian self-fashioning and spiritual regimen is an important intervention in the conversation and must-read for students and scholars of Christian martyrdom." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Fruchtman’s method is close to the ground. She recovers the imaginative reality of living martyrdom by paying attention to, and taking seriously, the linguistic and rhetorical choices of her authors; she is especially sensitive to moments of fissure, incongruity, or excess that signal modes of changing perceptions, and she is equally sensitive to context as a way to control her evidence... This is a terrific book." - Journal of Early Christian Studies"The monograph...is definitively an original contribution of high quality to the field of late antiquity and will, I am confident, have an impact on martyrdom scholarship." - Church History

• Introduction—Rethinking Martyrdom, 1. Destabilizing Death: Prudentius’s Peristephanon, 2. Modeling the Living Martyr: Witness in and Through Poetry, 3. Paulinus of Nola and the Living Martyr, 4. Making Martyrs in the Nolan Countryside, 5. Non Poena Sed Causa, 6. Augustine and the Life of Martyrdom, Conclusion—Surviving Martyrdom: History, Historiography, and Power.

Diane Shane Fruchtman is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey.

"Though others have written about the interweaving of Christian identity and martyrdom and the inculcation of a martyrological way-of-life, there is a welcome sharpness to Fruchtman’s work that refines the terms and allows readers to see the stakes... Fruchtman’s detailed study of the role of martyrial consciousness in Christian self-fashioning and spiritual regimen is an important intervention in the conversation and must-read for students and scholars of Christian martyrdom." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Fruchtman’s method is close to the ground. She recovers the imaginative reality of living martyrdom by paying attention to, and taking seriously, the linguistic and rhetorical choices of her authors; she is especially sensitive to moments of fissure, incongruity, or excess that signal modes of changing perceptions, and she is equally sensitive to context as a way to control her evidence... This is a terrific book." - Journal of Early Christian Studies"The monograph...is definitively an original contribution of high quality to the field of late antiquity and will, I am confident, have an impact on martyrdom scholarship." - Church History

• Introduction—Rethinking Martyrdom, 1. Destabilizing Death: Prudentius’s Peristephanon, 2. Modeling the Living Martyr: Witness in and Through Poetry, 3. Paulinus of Nola and the Living Martyr, 4. Making Martyrs in the Nolan Countryside, 5. Non Poena Sed Causa, 6. Augustine and the Life of Martyrdom, Conclusion—Surviving Martyrdom: History, Historiography, and Power.

Diane Shane Fruchtman is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey.

"Though others have written about the interweaving of Christian identity and martyrdom and the inculcation of a martyrological way-of-life, there is a welcome sharpness to Fruchtman’s work that refines the terms and allows readers to see the stakes... Fruchtman’s detailed study of the role of martyrial consciousness in Christian self-fashioning and spiritual regimen is an important intervention in the conversation and must-read for students and scholars of Christian martyrdom." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Fruchtman’s method is close to the ground. She recovers the imaginative reality of living martyrdom by paying attention to, and taking seriously, the linguistic and rhetorical choices of her authors; she is especially sensitive to moments of fissure, incongruity, or excess that signal modes of changing perceptions, and she is equally sensitive to context as a way to control her evidence... This is a terrific book." - Journal of Early Christian Studies"The monograph...is definitively an original contribution of high quality to the field of late antiquity and will, I am confident, have an impact on martyrdom scholarship." - Church History

• Introduction—Rethinking Martyrdom, 1. Destabilizing Death: Prudentius’s Peristephanon, 2. Modeling the Living Martyr: Witness in and Through Poetry, 3. Paulinus of Nola and the Living Martyr, 4. Making Martyrs in the Nolan Countryside, 5. Non Poena Sed Causa, 6. Augustine and the Life of Martyrdom, Conclusion—Surviving Martyrdom: History, Historiography, and Power.