San Antonio College Library

What problems do the Christians cause for the Romans in the early 2nd century? What is the Christians'' attitude when they are arrested? Why does Ignatius of Antioch ask to be torn apart by beasts? What is the difference between Jewish martyrs and Christian martyrs? Can the martyrdom stories be considered a kind of pornography? What is the historical interest of these accounts? Should they be read as the earliest Christian propaganda?

Former CIA agent and terrorism expert Robert Baer tracks the history of suicide bombers from their origin in the Iran-Iraq war to their growing predominance in the post-9/11 world

"In Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of both Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries. Sizgorich argues that the cultivation of violent martyrdom as a path to holiness was in no way particular to Islam; rather, it emerged from a matrix put into place by the Christians of late antiquity....

Understanding the phenomenon of suicide bombing in Iraq is vitally important for U.S. national security, foreign policy in the Muslim world, and the war on terrorism. This study draws extensively on open-source intelligence and papers of record, primary sources from insurgent groups including online documents and videos, and interviews with U.S. servicemen who have served in Iraq. It examines the history of suicide bombing in Iraq and many other countries,...

"What kind of people are suicide bombers? How do they justify their actions? In this meticulously researched and sensitively written book, journalist Christoph Reuter argues that popular views of these young men and women - as crazed fanatics or brainwashed automatons - fall short of the mark. In many cases these modern-day martyrs are well-educated young adults who turn themselves into human bombs willingly and eagerly - to exact revenge on a more...