Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART ONE The Beginnings: The New Testament to Irenaeus
- PART TWO THE THIRD CENTURY
- PART THREE FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE: FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
- A LITERARY GUIDE
- 21 Classical genres in Christian guise; Christian genres in classical guise
- 22 Arnobius and Lactantius
- 23 Eusebius and the birth of church history
- 24 The fourth-century Alexandrians: Athanasius and Didymus
- 25 Palestine: Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius
- 26 The Cappadocians
- 27 Fourth-century Latin writers: Hilary, Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose
- 28 Jerome and Rufinus
- 29 Augustine
- 30 John Chrysostom and the Antiochene School to Theodoret of Cyrrhus
- 31 Cyril of Alexandria
- 32 Hagiography
- 33 Ephrem and the Syriac Tradition
- 34 The literature of the monastic movement
- 35 Women and words: texts by and about women
- 36 Conciliar records and canons
- B CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD"
- References
23 - Eusebius and the birth of church history
from A - LITERARY GUIDE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART ONE The Beginnings: The New Testament to Irenaeus
- PART TWO THE THIRD CENTURY
- PART THREE FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE: FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
- A LITERARY GUIDE
- 21 Classical genres in Christian guise; Christian genres in classical guise
- 22 Arnobius and Lactantius
- 23 Eusebius and the birth of church history
- 24 The fourth-century Alexandrians: Athanasius and Didymus
- 25 Palestine: Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius
- 26 The Cappadocians
- 27 Fourth-century Latin writers: Hilary, Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose
- 28 Jerome and Rufinus
- 29 Augustine
- 30 John Chrysostom and the Antiochene School to Theodoret of Cyrrhus
- 31 Cyril of Alexandria
- 32 Hagiography
- 33 Ephrem and the Syriac Tradition
- 34 The literature of the monastic movement
- 35 Women and words: texts by and about women
- 36 Conciliar records and canons
- B CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD"
- References
Summary
Eusebius was born in the early 260s, probably in Caesarea, which was to be the centre of his activities for most of his life. He became bishop of Caesarea in about 313 (probably in succession to Agapius, who had ordained him priest and seems to have survived the Great Persecution), and died on 30 May 339. We know comparatively little about his life: a Life was written by his successor at Caesarea, Acacius, but this has been lost. This is doubtless because, though posterity valued some of his works, it had little veneration for the man and bishop, for during the controversy over the doctrines of the Alexandrian priest, Arius, Eusebius found himself on the losing side. Consequently, though a good deal has survived of Eusebius’ literary activity, it is probably only a small part of the total, which makes it very difficult to form a rounded view of him.
Three events profoundly shaped Eusebius’ life and activity. The first was his encounter with Pamphilus. Pamphilus was a great admirer of the work of Origen, though he had never known the man himself. He had studied in Alexandria under Pierius, whose devotion to Origen was such that he was known as ‘Origen Junior’ (Jerome, Vir. Ill. 76), and towards the end of the third century settled in Caesarea, where Origen had taught after his expulsion from Alexandria. There he set about restoring Origen’s heritage by making copies of all his voluminous works and continuing his labours on the text of the Scriptures.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature , pp. 266 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
and , eds, Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 1992).
and , eds, Christian Origins. Theology, Rhetoric and Community (London: Routledge, 1998).
Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004).
Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
and , eds, Arianism after Arius. Essays on the Development of the Fourth-Century Trinitarian Controversies (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993).
New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).
‘The Composition of Eusebius’ Onomasticon’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 26 (1975).Google Scholar
Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).
Julian the Apostate (London: Duckworth, 1978).
Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Studien zur Geschichte der Homöer. Der Osten bis zum Ende der homöischen Reichskirche (Tübingen: Mohr, 1988).
‘The Patrons of Pelagius: The Roman Aristocracy between East and West’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 21 (1970) (reprinted in ).Google Scholar
Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London: Faber, 1972).
Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London: Faber, 1982).
Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).
Authority and the Sacred (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
The Rise of Western Christendom. Triumph and Diversity, AD 200–1000, The Making of Europe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996).Google Scholar
The Making of a Heretic: Gender Authority and the Priscillianist Controversy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
Begotten, Not Made: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
and , eds, The Cambridge Ancient History, XIII: The Late Empire, A.D. 337–425 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
‘Apatheia and Sexuality in the Thought of Augustine and Cassian’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
45 (2001).Google Scholar
Geschichte des Papsttums, II (Tübingen: Mohr, 1933).
The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Evagrius (Paris: Beauchesne, 1977).
Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957).
Paulinus Noster. Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, Oxford Early Christian Texts (2000).
Christian Chronicles and Byzantine History, 5 th-6th Centuries (Aldershot: Variorum, 1992).
‘Nature and the “Mode of Union”: Late Patristic Models for the Personal Unity of Christ’, in et al., eds, The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002).Google Scholar
‘Eunome l’arien et l’exégèse néo-platonicienne du «Cratyle»’, Revue des etudes grecques
69 (1956).Google Scholar
, Eusèbe de Césarée commentateur. Platonisme et écriture sainte, Théologie Historique
63 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1982).
and , eds, Fifth-Century Gaul: a Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
ed. and trans., Neoplatonic Saints. The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students, Translated Texts for Historians
35 (2000).
Messalianismus und Antimessalianismus. Ein Beispiel ostkirchliche Ketzergeschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998).
The Donatist Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952).
Der Ausgang des griechisch-römischen Heidentums (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1929).
, Eusebius as Church Historian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980).
Gnade als konkrete Freiheit. Eine Untersuchung zur Gnadenlehre des Pelagius (Mainz: Matthias-Grunwald-Verlag, 1972).
‘Le dossier des origines du messalianisme’, in and , eds, Epectasis. Mélanges patristiques offerts au Cardinal Jean Daniélou, (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972).Google Scholar
and , eds, Das Konzil von Chalkedon, 3 vols (Würzburg: EchterVerlag, 1951–4).
ed., Scolies ariennes sur le Concile d’Aquilée, Sources chrétiennes
267 (1980).
The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. The Arian Controversy 318–381 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988).
The Spirit of God. The Exegesis of 1 & 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1994).
Die Bibelepik der lateinischen Spätantike. Formgeschichte einer erbaulichen Gattung, Bd. 1 (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1975).
, Eusebius of Caesarea’s Commentary on Isaiah, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Communities of the Blessed. Social Environment and Change in Northern Italy, AD 200–400, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999).
‘Resistance to the Virginal Ideal in Late Fourth-Century Rome: The Case of Jovinian’, Theological Studies
48 (1987).Google Scholar
The Later Roman Empire, 284–602, 3 vols + maps (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964).
Constantius II. und die christliche Kirche (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977).
, Eusebius of Caesarea against Paganism (Leiden: Brill, 2000).
A History of Neo-Arianism, Patristic Monographs Series
8 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1979).Google Scholar
Kirche der Traditoren oder kirche der Martyrer?: die vorgeschichte des Donatismus (Innsbruck: Tyrolia, 1986).
, Eusebiana (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912).
and , Eusebius of Caesarea: The Ecclesiastical History and Martyrs of Palestine, 2 vols (London: SPCK, 1928).
, Von Constantin dem Grossen zu Theodosius II: das christliche Kaisertum bei den Kirchen-historikern Socrates, Sozomenus und Theodoret (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996).
Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
‘The “Arian” Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered’, Theological Studies
48 (1987).Google Scholar
Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1999).
‘Ousia and Hypostasis: The Cappadocian Settlement and the Theology of “One Hypostasis”’, in , and , eds, The Trinity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
‘Marcellus of Ancyra and the Councils of 325: Antioch, Ancyra, and Nicaea’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 43 (1992).Google Scholar
‘Marcellus of Ancyra, Defender of the Faith against Heretics — and Pagans’, Studia Patristica
37 (2001).Google Scholar
Apollinarius von Laodicea (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1969).
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
‘Christianity and Dissent in Roman Africa: changing perspectives in recent work’, Studies in Church History
9 (1972).Google Scholar
Christianity in the Roman world (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974).
From Augustine to Gregory the Great (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).
The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
‘Donatus, Donatism’, in , ed., Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).Google Scholar
Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris: E de Boccard, 1938; with Retractatio, 1946).Google Scholar
Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
, ‘Der Jesaiakommentar des Eusebius von Kaisareia fast vollständig aufgefunden’, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentlicheWissenschaft
33 (1934) –9Google Scholar
ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963).
and , eds, Novum Testamentum Graece (Stuttgart: Würtembergische Bibelanstalt, 196325).
and , ‘Pelage et Pelagianisme’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, histoire et doctrine
XII. 2 (1987).Google Scholar
‘Impassible Suffering? Divine Passion and Fifth-Century Christology’, Theological Studies
58 (1997).Google Scholar
and , eds, L’Évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, (Rome: École française de Rome, 1998).
Pelagius: a Reluctant Heretic (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988).
The Letters of Pelagius and His Followers (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991).
Das Konzil von Konstantinopel und sein Symbol. Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des 2. Ökumenischen Konzils (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1965).
Ascetics, Authority and the Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).
, On Roman Time. The Codex-Calender of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage
17 (Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford: University of California Press, 1990).
Two Ancient Christologies (London and New York: SPCK, 1940).
The Council of Chalcedon (London: SPCK, 1953).
, Das Konzilsidee der alten Kirche, Konziliengeschichte, Reihe B: Untersuchungen1 (Paderborn and Zurich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1979).
La Crisi ariana nel IV secolo, Studia Ephemeridis «Augustinianum»
11 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum «Augustinianum», 1975).
‘Working the Earth of the Heart’: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts and Language to AD 431 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
‘Ein enzyklisches Schreiben der Synode von Alexandrien (362)’, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
79 (1988).Google Scholar
Hellenic Religion and Christianization c.370–529, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1993, 1995).
Socrates of Constantinople: historian of church and state (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997).
Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000).
Asterius von Kappadokien: Die Theologische Fragmente. Einleitung, Kritischer Text, Ubersetzung und Kommentar (Leiden: Brill, 1993).
Eusebius of Caesarea (London: Mowbray, 1960).
‘The Syntagmation of Aetius the Anomean’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s.19 (1968).Google Scholar
‘Pelagianism in the East’, in , ed., The Making of Orthodoxy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Arius. Heresy and Tradition (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1987; 2nd edn, revised with appendix, London: SCM, 2001).
revised with introduction and notes by : Eusebius, The History of the Church (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 19892).
‘The God of the Greeks and the Nature of Religious Language’, in and , eds, Early Christian Literature and the Greek Intellectual Tradition: Festschrift for R. M. Grant, Théologie Historique
53 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1980).Google Scholar
From Nicaea to Chalcedon (London: SCM, 1983).
‘The Rhetorical Schools and Their Influence on Patristic Exegesis’, in , ed., The Making of Orthodoxy. Essays in honour of Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
‘Exegetical Method and Scriptural Proof: the Bible in Doctrinal Debate’, Studia Patristica
24 (1989).Google Scholar
‘Paideia and the Myth of Static Dogma’, in and , eds, The Making and Remaking of Christian Doctrine: Essays in Honour of Maurice Wiles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by