Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Constructing Identity Through Cultural Appropriation 1. What Is a Christian? Constructing a Christian Identity 2. Noble Athletes: Gladiatorial, Athletic, and Martial Imagery in the Martyr Acts 3. Be a Man: Narrative Tools of Masculinization in Early Christian Martyr Acts 4. Putting Women in Their Place: Masculinizing and Feminizing the Female Martyr Conclusion: Gender and Language in Early Christian Martyr Acts Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

"Dying to Be Men is exemplary of the kind of work sex/gender theory can do in historical research." -- Amy Hollywood, Harvard University

About the Author

L. Stephanie Cobb is assistant professor of New Testament and Early Christianity in the Religion Department at Hofstra University.

Reviews

Dying to Be Men successfully conveys the surprising and subversive ways early Christian martyrologies appropriated the notion of masculinity... Recommended. Choice Overall, Dying to be Men is a well-written and worthwhile contribution to the growing number of studies on the function of gender in early Christian texts. -- Colleen M. Conway Church History This book is to be commended for its lucid articulation of the question of gendered presentations in the martyr acts and its efforts to answer this question with a clear, consistent thesis. -- Taylor Petrey Biblical Theology Bulletin