Eusebius and Empire
Constructing Church and Rome in the Ecclesiastical History

Presents a radical new reading of how Christian history was rewritten in the fourth century to suit its circumstances under Rome.

James Corke-Webster (Author)

9781108474078, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 January 2019

360 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.64 kg

'... this award-winning monograph is a tour-de-force. It builds upon previous generations of scholarship while charting a new and intriguing direction in approach to the EH. It takes Eusebius seriously as an innovative literary genius capable of the sophisticated argument that Corke-Webster meticulously extracts from the EH.' Mark DelCogliano, Studies in Late Antiquity

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, written in the early fourth century, continues to serve as our primary gateway to a crucial three hundred year period: the rise of early Christianity under the Roman Empire. In this volume, James Corke-Webster undertakes the first systematic study considering the History in the light of its fourth-century circumstances as well as its author's personal history, intellectual commitments, and literary abilities. He argues that the Ecclesiastical History is not simply an attempt to record the past history of Christianity, but a sophisticated mission statement that uses events and individuals from that past to mould a new vision of Christianity tailored to Eusebius' fourth-century context. He presents elite Graeco-Roman Christians with a picture of their faith that smooths off its rough edges and misrepresents its size, extent, nature, and relationship to Rome. Ultimately, Eusebius suggests that Christianity was - and always had been - the Empire's natural heir.

Part I: 1. Eusebius, of Caesarea
2. The Ecclesiastical History
Part II: 3. Christian intellectuals
4. Christian ascetics
5. Christian families
6. Christian martyrs
Part III: 7. The Church
8. The Church and Rome.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], The Early Church [HRCC1], Christian Churches & denominations [HRCC], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]