Church History Trading Card: Polycarp

Polycarp was a cool dude. The Martyrdom of Polycarp is all about his death. Which is legendarily legendary. The document is a bit effusive in its praise of Polycarp – but it had to combat the way Polycarp was viewed by his contemporaries from around the Roman Empire. Martyrdom, death at the hands of the Roman Empire as a criminal, was pretty shameful – so the document is designed to rebrand Polycarp’s sacrifice as Christ like. A guy named Leonard Thompson wrote a good article about why the Martyrdom of Polycarp is written like it is – its helpful in placing the document in its literary and historical context. Thompson’s article is called ‘The Martyrdom of Polycarp: Death in the Roman Games,’ and it is available on EBSCOHost if you’re a QTC student.

Legend: The Greek helmet means he’s from the Greek East, the cross that he was martyred, the scroll that there’s a primary document about him in our reading list and the thumbs up because he was a good guy.

Comments

Nathan Campbell says:

Where is the learning experience in that? What if I’m a tactile learner and the process of drawing Polycarp helped me humanise him?

Plus. The flames are awesome.

Nathan Campbell says:

I should mention that all my trading cards will be stick figures.

AndrewFinden says:

The flames are particular good – I do look forward to seeing the many nuances you will bring out in the coming stick figures!

Rich Griese says:

Stephan Huller has put forth a very interesting view, that polycarp was a literary creation of Irenaeus. See; http://webulite.dyndns.org:8080/stephan_huller

I love internet pen pal that are interested in christian history. Feel free to email me if that is something you are also interested in.

Cheers! RichGriese@gmail.com

Ben McLaughlin says:

I think your trading cards are dope.