James A. Kelhoffer examines an often overlooked aspect of New Testament constructions of legitimacy, namely the "value" of Christians' withstanding persecution as a means of corroborating their religious identity as followers of Christ. The introductory chapter defines the problem in interaction with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "cultural capital." Chapters 2-10 are exegetical, examining the depictions of persecuted Christians in the Pauline letters, First Peter, Hebrews, Revelation, the NT Gospels, and Acts. An epilogue considers later examples of early Christian martyrs and confessors, John Foxe's "Book of Martyrs," and the ethical and hermeneutical problem of asserting the withstanding of persecution as a basis of legitimacy in ancient and modern contexts.weiterlesen