Holy wars, cold wars and dirty wars

This dissertation examines the history of the term "martyr" in Christianity, martyrdom's role in Christianity's history, and contemporary martyrological paradigms. It then situates martyrdom in the two-thirds world, through a comparative methodology researching the case studies of Carlos Mugica from Argentina and Gong Pinmei from the People's Republic of China. Relying on martyr narratives and field research in Buenos Aires and Shanghai, the conclusion is drawn that both Mugica and Gong operate as martyrs emblematic of their time, Mugica as the first martyr of Argentina's 'Dirty War,' and Gong as a martyr of the Cold War, yet they both remain unsanctioned by the Church because of their politics. I conclude that the routinization process of martyrs, both official and unofficial, follows a similar path, simultaneously suggesting that the Church's own regulations regarding martyrdom are dependent on its own modern understandings of post-enlightenment secularism and church politics. Finally, I revisit the category of martyrdom in light of a comparative analysis, challenging the Church to broaden its understanding of martyrdom to incorporate understandings of martyrdom that emerge from religiosity found in the two-thirds world.