Preface -- Shared Concepts of Culture and Religion -- The Origins of Concepts of the Afterlife/Funeral Rituals -- The Traditions of Judaism -- The Origins and Evolution of Satan -- Greco-Roman Concepts of the Noble Death and the Afterlife -- The Maccabee Revolt -- The Letters of Paul -- The Story of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels -- Acts of the Apostles: Inclusion of Gentiles and Persecution -- The Imperial Cult and Life and Death in the Roman Arenas -- Institutional Development and Hierarchy of the Christian Churches -- The Invention of Orthodoxy and Heresy -- Christian Martyrs -- Martyrdom in Judaism: The Rabbinic Tradition -- The Christianization of the Roman Empire -- Monasticism and the Cult of the Saints -- Augustine and the Western Tradition -- The Emergence of Islam -- Martyrdom in Sunni Islam and Shi'a Islam -- Martyrdom in the Middle Ages -- The Protestant Reformation -- Modern Martyrdom -- Glossary -- Index.