Eschatological Reward in St Cyprian’s Writings

Abstract

A special period in the life of the Church, the time of persecutions, that happened at the break of the 2^nd century, not only gave numerous testimonies of martyrdom, but also brought development of theological thought, especially the theology of martyrdom and eschatology. The present article aims at showing the teaching on eschatological reward in the writings of one of the most brilliant figures of that period - St Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage (f258). In his writings St Cyprian, touching upon eschatology especially emphasized the future reward for the faithful, and he showed the splendor of the reward by the wealth of terms he used, among which agonistic and military terminology occurs most frequently. The Bishop of Carthage drew the reader’s attention to the fact that although this reward may be attained by all the faithful, there is a gradation of the future reward depending on the services; he mentioned martyrdom for faith in the first place among them.