“Heaven does not simply await the martyr in another space and time upon his or her death. Instead, the martyr brings a foretaste of the not yet fully consummated kingdom to earth. In the book of Revelation, the martyrs are vindicated by the descent of the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven to earth. The eschatological imagination sees that, although they presume to kill us, Christ has vanquished the powers of death once and for all. A martyr is one who lives as if death does not finally exist.”
