Christian Historiography Flashcards
(33 cards)
What are the features of early Christian historiography?
- Narrative history
- Tell the truth
- Moral edification (morality was defined by religion)
- Divine guides and rules all
- Sources are acknowledged
- Chronology is different
- God created everything and will come back
- Everything is divinely guided and inspired
- Moved back towards the divine
Who was Eusebius of Caesarea?
263-314 AD
Father of Christian history
What did Eusebius write?
Ecclesiastical History
What did the Ecclesiastical History cover?
Documents Christian history from apostles to his own lifetime
What characters did Eusebius cover?
Heroes, saints, heretics, martyrs
What sources did Eusebius have access to in his training?
Pamphilius
Origen’s writings
Good library of 30,000 books
What is Eusebius accused of ignoring?
The darker side of Christianity and the internal struggles of the church
What was Eusebius main ideology/purpose for writing?
That Christianity was superior to other religions
what was Arianism?
Introduced by Arius, he said that logic suggested that at some point jesus didn’t exist. Arius was tried for heresy, he was banished and the church then developed the Nicene Creed
What is the Nicene Creed?
Statement of belief in one true god, Jesus and the holy spirit
How was Eusebius involved with Arianism?
He thought the treatment of Arius was too harsh and helped to depose the head of the council of nicea.
What does Eusebius’s involvement with Arianism suggest?
That maybe he wasn’t a good/objective historian as he clearly had some biases
What were the letters of Agbar?
letters which were reported to be between Jesus and King of Agbar
What was Eusebius’s involvement with the letters of Agbar?
He discovered the letters and included them as absolute truth in his histories
Can we trust Eusebius?
- Strong association with Constantine
- Failed to agree with banning Arianism
- Gibbon accused him of leaving the bad stuff out
- He may have lied becuase of his purposes/ideology
- Couldnt distinguish between good/bad sources
- Felt adequate to give the task justice
Who was the Venerable Bede?
British christian historian
672-735 AD
What book did Bede write?
Ecclesiastic People of the English People
What was Bede’s history?
Entrusted to Benedict Biscop at 7yrs
Moved to the monastry at Jarrow
Deacon at 19 years
Preist at 30 years
What was Bedes purpose of writing Ecclesiastic History?
To chart the English people from the time of Augustine to his own time. He talked of the English as a unitary people
How many words in Ecclastic People?
85,000 (big book)
What sources did Bede use?
Eusebius, Orosius, Pliny, Origens
What did Bede say about heresy?
That the church was persecuted and he wanted to defend the church against heresy
Can we trust Bede?
- 20% authentic oral traditions and sagas
- Points out contradictions when he needed to
- Surrounded by many books at Jarrow
- Rigouossly traced his sources and told us who they were
- Believed that history is a demonstration of the power of God
- No sources from Mercian houses (Bias?)
What is Cadmons dream?
A story that Bede included. Cadmon was a musician who couldnt sing and therefore left the monatery before being asked to sing. Then he had a dream and god/angels gave him the talent to sing. This became one of the oldest English poems.
Demonstration of gods power
