ABSTRACT

This paper examines the theology of martyrdom, both Catholic and Protestant, and argues that in the 18th century there was a Protestant belief that knowledge of the Pacific Islands had been withheld from Europeans so that the work of the original apostles could be resumed, and that, as in apostolic times, martyrs were ‘the seed of the church’. John Williams, the first Protestant martyr of Melanesia, consciously prepared himself for martyrdom and set the pattern for Samoan and Cook Islander missionary martyrs and other European martyrs who followed. The reasons why the missionaries were killed, when known, are discussed and mostly fall short of the classical definition of martyrdom though it was acceptable to Protestants that they had died while attempting to introduce Christianity.

摘要

本文考察了天主教和新教的殉道神学，并认为在 18 世纪，新教信仰认为欧洲人对太平洋岛屿的知识已被隐瞒，以便可以恢复原始使徒的工作，并且认为就像在使徒时代一样，殉道者是“教会的种子”。美拉尼西亚的第一位新教烈士约翰·威廉姆斯有意识地为殉道做好了准备，并为萨摩亚和库克岛的传教士烈士以及随后的其他欧洲烈士树立了榜样。传教士被杀的原因，当已知时，被讨论并且大多不符合殉道的经典定义，尽管新教徒可以接受他们在试图引入基督教时死亡。