IU Alumni Diane Fruchtman gave a talk on the concept of martyrdom according to Caesarius of Arles and Augustine titled “Receiving Martyrdom.” Fruchtman explained that though generations of readers have overlooked Augustine’s understanding that martyrdom does not require death, an early admirer of his, Caesarius of Arles (468-542), understood what Augustine was arguing, agreed with it, and incorporated it into the sermons and instructions he offered his own contemporaries. But the differences between Caesarius’s presentation of living martyrdom and Augustine’s are illuminating—both because they showcase the two bishops’ differing priorities, audiences, and historical circumstances and because they press us, as scholars and historians, to think with more nuance about the transmission and reception of ideas from context to context and person to person.
The College of Arts