Title: Martyrdom of 10,000 Christians; Date: 1508; Artist: Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528); Building: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Object/Function: Painting; City/Town: Vienna; Country: Austria; Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12; 2 Timothy 3:11-12; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Notes: “The contemporaraneity of Jesus’ Beatitudes in general and of the Persecution Beatitudes in particular is suggested in a Newsweek [April 16, 2001, p.50] cover story, which in a review of the astonishing worldwide growth of the church in the last century notes: “What many U.S. Christians fail to realize is that when Asians convert to Christ it requires enormous courage. Converts typically are ostracized by family and neighbors — and often targeted for persecution…For most Asians, however, what makes Jesus attractive is his identification wih the poor and the suffering.” The cultural climate of the earliest Christian centuries was persecution; it is gradually becoming so again.” (Bruner, p.183) — From The Yorck Project.