Martyrdom and truth

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 17

Martyrdom and truth

Alt For Christ. By Diana Dewar. Oxford University Press, 1980. 193 pp. ■ $6.70 (paperback).

(Reviewed by

Des Casey)

These brief accounts of 11 twentieth century Christian martyrdoms are well-enough . researched and offer interesting information,, but. they fail to. give .an adequate appreciation of the personality and history of the victim, or an understanding of the social arid political forces of the time. The reader is given only fleeting ihtroductions to an Anglican archbishop slain in Amin’s Uganda, two victims of Hitler’s Third Reich tone from within the German secret intelligence), an evangelist who refuses to' take the Mau Mau oath, some who died during Japanese occupations of the Second World War,and Latin Americans caught in the midst of civil war and dictatorships. Like many who have written “lives of- the saints” the author here sometimes uses the martyrdoms as “proof’ of the truth of the motivating beliefs. Yet as the Nazis' were slaying Maximillian Kolbe and Helmuth

Molthe, Germans too were dying for what they believed, no matter how wrongly, was true. Dying for & conviction may be admirable and attract new recruits: it does not prove the conviction to be true. Second, a basic aspect of the martyrs’ lives is not explored. They were motivated by Christian faith. But the reason they - were killed was usually a political, not a religious, one. For example, the' Mau. Maus; are quickly pigeon-holed by the author-as “terrorists," “hoodlums” and savages, with little appreciation given to. the fact that theirs was a people’s movement protesting at the effects of colonial oppression and the attempted annihilation of an indigenous culture and way of life. -Christians. often symbolised this oppression and, no matter how well. motivated, participated in-it and were seen to do so. ’ .

There is no denying the' dedication, goodness and courage of these men and women, but the brevity and'the failure to wrestle with these other important questions related to martyrdom will hardly satisfy the majority of readers.