Aristotelian and Christian self-sacrifice

In a 2006 article in Modern Theology , J. Warren Smith offers this summary of the Aristotelian argument for self-sacrifice for friends on behalf of the man of Noble Soul: “Aristotle . . . establishes the relationship between self-love and self-sacrifice. In his words one hears the echo of Achilles’s dilemma: whether it is better to live a short but glorious life or to live a long but mean existence. For Aristotle the answer is clear for the one who aspires to be noble. He defines the virtue of courage ( andreios ) as bravery in the face of death. Not every death, however, is the occasion for courage, but for Aristotle, the soldier who suppresses his fear and voluntarily faces death in battle embodies true courage. The motive for this courage and sacrifice is the same for the courageous man and for the self-lover. ‘The courageous man is proof against fear so far as man may be. Hence although he will sometimes fear even terrors not beyond man’s endurance, he will do so in the right way, and he will endure them as principle dictates, for the sake of what is noble; for that is the end at which virtue aims.’”

Thus, “laying down his life for the sake of his friends and the welfare of the polis, the self-lover makes the ultimate sacrifice that secures for himself that supreme nobility that is the object of his aspirations. It is love of self, which desires above all else to be the best, that is the primary motive for acts of self-sacrifice. The Noble Soul is precisely such a self-lover . . . . The Noble Soul sacrifices his life because through the great benefits his death brings to the state he is exalted and gains for himself a preeminent nobility.” Behind this Smith discerns a Nietzschean will to power: “self-love, as the chief motive behind sacrificing one’s life, is an expression of the will to power because self-love is the desire for individual greatness through service to the state.”

Smith discerns similar motivations in early Christian martyr theology, but interprets the Martyrdom of Polycarp , which contrasts the evangelical martyrdom of Polycarp to the self-aggrandizing efforts of Quintus, as a very different sort of self-sacrifice.

Fundamentally, Christian martyrdom differs from Aristotelian self-sacrifice because martyrdom does not seek to establish the greatness of the martyr but to emphasize the greatness of God’s sustaining grace: “The true martyr—unlike the Noble Soul—does not seek greatness but is willing to be used by God to display the power of grace.” As a result, the Christian martyr doesn’t seek out death but waits patiently. The Christian martyr waits for the time, place, and circumstances of his death to be chosen, ultimately by God, rather than choosing them himself.

On these points, Polycarp’s is a model martyrdom: “Polycarp proves himself a true disciple of Jesus because he followed the pattern of Jesus’ proto-martyrdom in the gospels. He is a true disciple precisely because he waited to be arrested, thereby proving his election by God who gave the eighty-year-old bishop the grace sufficient to die nobly. The result was that Polycarp’s bold witness brought an end to the persecutions. Moreover, Polycarp’s martyrdom, which was not sought but even avoided, is an example of a martyrdom that breaks with the classical view of self-sacrifice for honor and glory (Homer) or of self-love that seeks nobility (Aristotle).”