All societies have their martyrs, those semi-legendary spiritual heroes whose style of death embodies the values most dear to the societies they represent. Those values were expressed in religious terms because originally all authority was seen as stemming from the divine...

- Lacey Baldwin Smith

“For the ‘Romans,’ it didn’t matter much whether the lions were eating a robber or a bishop, and it probably didn’t make much of a difference to the lions, either, but the robber’s friends and the bishop’s friends told different stories about those leonine meals. It is in these stories that martyrdom, as opposed to execution, or dinner, can be found.

- Daniel Boyarin

In the aftermath of 9/11, and the increase of the phenomenon of ‘suicide bombing’, it has become important for politicians, academics and religious leaders to distinguish between ‘true’ and ‘false’ manifestations of martyrdom. In order to do so, and to counter those who argue for the legitimacy of the suicide-attack, they must appeal to an objective and shared definition of martyrdom

- Paul Middleton