Counter-culture of Compassion. The Early Christian View of Roman Games and the Possibilities of its Application in the Contemporary Relationship of Church and Society

Christian martyrdom can be seen as an expression of the counter-cultural reality of the Church, her conflicting tension between the world and the coming kingdom of Heaven. In this context, it is also a problematic concept that, in many cases, leads to violence and avoids the possibility of dialogue; however, it inseparably belongs to the heart of Christianity. Because of that, we should think about it in new and fruitful ways. This paper tries to think specifically about early Christian martyrdom in the context of a victim perspective and critique of the Roman gladiatorial games, concentrating on the element of compassion, which was unexpected in the Roman empire of the first centuries after Christ. That perspective of compassion is something that we can grasp, like the substantial essence of early Christian martyrdom, and which is also meaningful for our time and situation of mainly Church-society relations. This is shown with peak Christian game critique – Tertullian’s On Games, and examples of the three oldest martyrdoms – Martyrdom of Polycarp, Martyrs of Lyon and Vienne, and Passion of Perpetua and Felicity. We can use that found compassion in new situations where we, at the moment, like the Romans, do not see a need or reason for it.