Suffering for the Sake of the Gospel: The Resurgence of Martyrdom

In the early centuries of the Christian era suffering and martyrdom were part and parcel of being a Christian.  When Christianity was endorsed by the State this changed to Christians being - or expecting themselves to be – protected by the State.  The unprecedented recent wave of persecution and attacks on Christians worldwide is forcing Christians to rethink this assumption.  We now have much to learn from how the early Christians faced suffering and martyrdom.  This talk examines examples from the Coptic Christians in Egypt to illustrate this point.