The heroic dimension of faith and discipleship was prominent in the early church. In his Life of Anthony, Athanasius drew upon many classical images of heroism. Indomitable as Achilles, St. Anthony is triumphant on the spiritual battlefield, defeating Satan’s assaults. Like Aeneas, the hero in Virgil’s epic, St. Anthony founds a city—a veritable metropolis of monks in the Egyptian desert. He defeats pagan philosophers in debate, too, echoing Socrates in his dialectical skill.
We read old hagiographies and find that, yes, the saints have fired the imaginations of Christians through the ages. Yet the notion of Christian heroism seems suspect in our time. According to Nietzsche, Judaism and Christianity destroyed the possibility of heroism. Biblical religion sponsored a “slave revolt” in morality, he asserted, an elevation of the meek and mediocre. In his account, Christianity champions life-denying weakness and servile submission, while treating life-affirming strength, self-assertion, and accomplishment as evil.
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