To the modern reader, the term martyrs often conjures up images of flames licking the robes of saints as they look peacefully heavenward. Many such images find their roots in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Martyrs, a collection of essays edited by Susan Bergman, also takes on the colors and flavors of its age. Because the essays are not reticent to deal with issues such as colonialism, racism, and revolution, the prose rings with authenticity. The contemporary reader, skeptical of heroes and wary of emotional manipulation, is disarmed.
Martyrs now seem more human.
The essays span the twentieth century, beginning with Russia's glasnost in the 1990s and slowly reaching back to China's Boxer Rebellion in the 1900s. One of the most striking qualities of Martyrs is the strong political emphasis. Social justice emerges throughout the book. Virtually all twenty of the book's subjects die for at least partially political reasons. We are drawn to examine Christ as the foundational martyr.