The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era

by Judith Perkins

Explores how Christian narrative representation in the early Empire worked to create a new kind of human self-understanding - the self as sufferer - and why forms of suffering such as martyrdom and self-mutilation were so important.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Literary Criticism, Ancient History

268 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 1995

Reviews

[Kate Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was just starting out as a professional historian, and I found it incredibly inspiring! Perkins found a way to bring together fiction and history, ideas about religion and the world of the imagination, and daily life - in a way that gives the reader a privileged glimpse into a lost world. She shows how the stories ancient people told really made a difference in their understanding of the world. I'm not sure whether it's an 'easy read', but for history students, academics, and others who are deeply interested in the subject it is really a classic.

[Laura Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, this is a fascinating book. Lots to digest here but the idea that martyrdom is fundamentally a rearranging of social order (vulnerable people dying as triumph, women abandoning social responsibilities for death, demonstrations of Rome's power as Rome's defeat, etc) is an endlessly fascinating subject and deserves more attention. Books like this remind me why I love martyr literature.

[Jennifer]

recommended by Linda Paulson during the Plague class.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is painfully academic and self-serving. If you can get past that, the ideas are not completely throwaway. I can’t, though.