Should Dietrich Bonhoeffer be considered a “martyr”? Craig J. Slane, in his book, Bonhoeffer as Martyr tackled that question. In order to determine if Bonhoeffer was a true martyr for Jesus. Slane looked at how early Christianity defined it (Chapter 3: “Martyrdom in Early Christianity”). Slane made the following conclusion about “martyrdom” among the early followers of Jesus…
Here martyrs are in the process of being narrowly defined by the Christian community, which marks the beginning of the technical use of the term. Bearing witness before the authorities and contending with various tortures apparently was not enough. Their “perfection” was still hanging in the balance as long as defection remained a possibility. Death alone could render the final judgement on their faithfulness, as it had already with Stephen, the “perfect martyr,”and that “faithful and true martyr,” Christ himself. By implication, taking to one’s self the title martyr involves a presumption that the living simply cannot make (50).
