Author: Charles Freeman Publisher: Abrams ISBN: 1590205227 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
“A chronicle of one significant year in Christian history.” —Kirkus Reviews In A.D. 381, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree in which all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy and brought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate about the nature of God; all other interpretations were now declared heretical. It was the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilization free thought was unambiguously suppressed. Why has Theodosius’s revolution been airbrushed from the historical record? In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed historian Charles Freeman argues that Theodosius’s edict and the subsequent suppression of paganism not only brought an end to the diversity of religious and philosophical beliefs throughout the empire, but created numerous theological problems for the Church, which have remained unsolved. The year A.D. 381, as Freeman puts it, was “a turning point which time forgot.” “A well-argued and -documented study of the rise of the monotheistic state in the late Roman Empire and its aftereffects.” —Library Journal
Author: Charles Freeman Publisher: ISBN: 9780224077897 Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
"In AD 381, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree in which all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy and brought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate about the nature of the Godhead; all other interpretations were now declared heretical. Moreover, for the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilization, free thought was unambiguously suppressed. Not since the attempt of the pharaoh Akhenaten to impose his god Aten on his Egyptian subjects in the fourteenth century BC had there been such a widesweeping programme of religious coercion. Yet surprisingly this political revolution, intended to bring inner cohesion to an empire under threat from the outside, has been airbrushed from historical record. Instead, it has been claimed that the Christian Church had reached a consensus on the Trinity which was promulgated at the Council of Constantinople in 381." "In this groundbreaking new book, acclaimed historian Charles Freeman shows that the council was a shambolic affair which only took place after Theodosius' decree had become law. In short, the Church was aquiescing in the overwhelming power of the emperor. Freeman argues that Theodosius' edict and the subsequent suppression of paganism not only brought an end to the diversity of religious and philosophical beliefs throughout the empire, but created numerous theological problems for the Church, which have remained unsolved. The year AD 381, Freeman concludes, marked 'a turning point that time forgot'."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Richard Patrick Crosland Hanson Publisher: A&C Black ISBN: 9780567030924 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 966
Book Description
First published in 1988, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God is still considered by many scholars to be the finest work on the Arian Controversy. Examining scholarly works on the Controversy and many original texts, Professor Hanson, provides a clear understanding of how the traditional and historic doctrine of God as the Holy Trinity reached its most mature and enduring form. The author is not primarily concerned to defend the orthodox position itself, but rather to discover and examine the formation of that orthodoxy. The history of the events - the Councils, the interventions of the Emperor, the rivalries of sees, the behaviour of bishops, the varying fortunes of the different schools of thought and their leaders - is interwoven with the progression of thought and doctrine during the sixty years of the Controversy. Professor Hanson sees the problem of the reconciliation of two concepts which were both part of the very fabric of Christianity - monotheism and the worship of Jesus Christ as divine.
Author: Charles Freeman Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 030012581X Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 416
Book Description
"Tracing the astonishing transformation that the early Christian church underwent - from sporadic niches of Christian communities surviving in the wake of a horrific crucifixion to sanctioned alliance with the state - Charles Freeman shows how freedom of thought was curtailed by the development of the concept of faith. The imposition of 'correct belief' and an institutional framework that enforced orthodoxy were both consolidating and stifling. Uncovering the church's relationships with Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy and Greco-Roman society, Freeman offers dramatic new accounts of Paul, the resurrection, and the church fathers and emperors."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Charles Freeman
Author: Charles Freeman
Author: Richard Patrick Crosland Hanson
Author: California
Author: Charles Freeman
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