Martyrs

Danielle Benedict: Outside Reading (1)

Tertullian-To the Martyrs

Prison is typically for wrongdoers, Tertullian calls it the “devil’s house." However martyrs were imprisoned unjustly these good people were in jail because of their belief systems. Tertullian asserts that one’s physical location does not determine one’s actions or quality of thought. Yes, it is a major influencer but not the ultimate deciding factor, which is more likely the human will. Abraham Lincoln said it best when he stated “folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” People in war zones can reach spiritual epiphanies and others who live in the lap of luxury are depressed. The mental and spiritual states are more powerful than the physical state of being. He believes that his fellow Christians are no longer children of this world but children of God therefore “it is of no consequence where you are in the world—you who are not of it.”

The point of prison is to restrict and prevent a person from enjoying worldly pleasures. The martyrs never wanted those pleasures to begin with because most of them are sins. Prison guarded martyrs from physical temptation in many ways and he put it eloquently when he wrote that “the spirit does not gain more in the prison than the flesh loses.” Real battle in prison is a spiritual one, of not losing hope. This “noble struggle,” of preserving through imprisonment, is likened to a soldier going to war for a significance cause. Our earthly life is a training ground where we may be tested by hardships which develop us into improved moral beings. Trials are not the point of an epic story, but rather the personal outcome that stems from that original conflict show us the resistance of the human spirit. Does losing a loved one or having your rights taken away lead you to rely on something greater than yourself or crumble into despair? These philosophers we are reading tell stories about characters overcoming unsurpassable odds and I would argue that this is possible. The real fight is in our hearts and minds.