The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1816 page)

see
MIKI TOKUHARU
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(Gk., ‘section’). A passage of scripture; specifically, one that is a self-contained product of oral tradition, or one prescribed for liturgical reading.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

see
lV
R
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Persecution
.

Adherents of virtually all religions have suffered persecution for their faith at some point in their history, and such persecution has generally been held to forge a more resilient faith. Thus the pressure on
Mu
ammad
during the Meccan period made him more determined, so that
martyrs
(
shah
d
) became highly favoured and revered in Islam. That ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’ (see
TERTULLIAN
) arose as a belief from the early cents. of Christianity, when Christians were sporadically persecuted as a non-conformist minority: there was only formal imperial persecution under the Emperors Decius (250), Valerian (257–8), and Diocletian (304–11). The 20th cent. has seen persecution of Christians on an unprecedented scale—by atheistic communism, by fascism, and by militant Islam in certain countries. See also
ANTI-SEMITISM
;
HOLOCAUST
.