Being-towards-death: on martyrdom and Islam

Cristianesimo nella storia, 27 (2006), pp. 349-379

Abstract

ENG

This chapter examines the philosophical perspectives that are adopted in attempting to address the question of martyrdom with reference to monotheism in general and Islam in particular. Multiple analytical and critical approaches are implemented in the investigation of phenomena associated with this uneasy matter, while at the same time the conceptual dculties and challenges that must be confronted when considering the existential privation entailed by death, and more specifically by martyrdom, with its complex ethical and political implications, are highlighted. This line of inquiry proceeds by way of examining the etymological dimensions underlying the notion of martyrdom, followed by reflections on selected textual fragments from the religious canonical sources, along with the articulation of ontological outlooks on mortality and its temporal horizon. It goes on to account, in theory and practice, for the ideological, societal, and geopolitical contexts of the use of violence, and the mediation of the concrete realities of aggression. 
 

La rivista

Cristianesimo nella Storia ospita ricerche di autorevoli studiosi sul percorso storico del cristianesimo, con particolare attenzione ai contesti e alle culture con cui i cristiani sono entrati in contatto, a cominciare da quella vetero-testamentaria e giudaica fino alle società secolarizzate di oggi. Ogni quadrimestre Cristianesimo nella storia propone, oltre ai saggi critici, rassegne, note e recensioni che consentono di valutare criticamente le ipotesi emerse negli studi scientifici internazionali in campo storico, teologico ed esegetico. Un numero di ogni anno viene dedicato a un argomento monografico.