Upholding faith in isolation: Christians in the Roman Army – Japan’s “Hidden Christians”

Abstract

The Christian discourse in antiquity about the possibility of being a Christian and conducting sacrifices is unsurprisingly dominated by the theological elite, which took a firm stance against the compatibility thereof. However, this discourse cannot conceal that there were Christians who thought it possible. In the elite’s counterarguments to such opinions, there are seldom remarks in regard to the situation faced by Christian soldiers, but when they do appear, they are focused on the rank and file, not officers, although the later had to actively perform sacrifices. Meanwhile there are martyrdom reports of Christian officers, which implies that these must have, up to a certain point, been at ease with the fulfillment of their duties as cultic functionaries and their Christian belief. Modern scholarship has explained this by the lack of rigor in their faith, but in this paper, it will be argued, that the “hidden Christians” of Japan form an ideal comparative scenario. This comparison makes it all the more plausible that the Christian officers were not only able to understand the theological gravity of their actions, but also to find ways to amend them, therefore upholding their self-perception as Christians.