2
evident there are three
concerns
which
were
uppermost
in
Ignatius mind as he wrote these letters.
4
First of all, he longed to see unity at every level
in the life of the local churches to which he was writing. In his own words, he was a man
"dedicated to the cause of unity."
5
Second, he ardently desired his fellow believers to
stand fast in their common faith against heresy. While there is no scholarly consensus as
to the number of heresies in view in Ignatius letters,
6
it is clear that one of them was a
form of Docetism, which maintained that the incarnation of Christ, and consequently his
death and resurrection, did not really take place. And finally, Ignatius is eager to recruit
the help of his correspondents in the successful completion of his own vocation, which is
nothing less than a call to martyrdom.
7
All of these three areas of Ignatius letters have occasioned both significant scholarly
elaboration as well as sharp critique. Of the three, it is Ignatius desire for martyrdom that
has occasioned the most criticism as a number of scholars have suggested that Ignatius
remarks about his death reveal a man mentally unbalanced. W. H. C. Frend, in his
monumental study of Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, describes
Ignatiuss letters as displaying "a state of exaltation bordering on mania,"
8
while G. E. M.
de Ste. Croix bluntly states that Ignatius has "a pathological yearning" for death, the sure
4
John E. Lawyer, Jr., "Eucharist and Martyrdom in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch", Anglican
Theological Review, 73 (1991), 281.
5
Philadelphians 8.1 (trans. Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, 95). See also Polycarp 1.2;
Philadelphians 7.2.
6
Thus, for example, Charles Thomas Brown [The Gospel and Ignatius of Antioch (New York: Peter
Lang, 2000), 176-197] believes that there are two heretical groups in view, Gentile Judaizers and Gnostics.
If so, the first group is addressed in Magnesians and Philadelphians, while the Gnostics are responded to in
Trallians and Smyrnaeans. For other helpful contributions to this discussion, see L. W. Barnard, "The
Background of St. Ignatius of Antioch", Vigiliae Christianae, 17 (1963), 193-206; Trevett, A Study of
Ignatius of Antioch in Syria and Asia, 194-199; Jerry L. Sumney, "Those Who "Ignorantly Deny Him":
The Opponents of Ignatius of Antioch", Journal of Early Christian Studies, 1 (1993), 345-365; Schoedel,
"Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch" in Haase and Temporini eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der
Römischen Welt, II/27.1:301-304.
7
It is noteworthy that Ignatius never uses the term
as a technical term. See Munier, "Où en est
la question dIgnace dAntioche?" in Haase and Temporini eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen
Welt, II/27.1:456; G. W. Bowersock, Martyrdom and Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995), 6, 77.
8
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1965), 197.