Eusebius' final pages are among the most optimistic in all of historical literature. Why is Eusebius so positive and so hopeful about the future? In particular, why is he so positive about Constantine? What is Constantine doing that makes Eusebius feel that the Roman world is exactly on the right track? Do you feel Eusebius is missing anything here?
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Eusebius Book X
Eusebius' final pages are among the most optimistic in all of historical literature. Why is Eusebius so positive and so hopeful about the future? In particular, why is he so positive about Constantine? What is Constantine doing that makes Eusebius feel that the Roman world is exactly on the right track? Do you feel Eusebius is missing anything here?
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Kent Johnsen
ReplyDeleteBook X is a fairly nice ending to an overall dreary book in some respects. It concludes talking a lot about Constantine favorably, not only because of the fact that he is Christian but also supporting the publishing of his book. Eusebius sees potential in Rome's future, but doesn't address what potential Christianity has overall, which could be his only weakness here.
Eusebius is positive because it was the first time things were going really good for the Christians. Christians had been persecuted, tortured, murdered, and disgraced. Now they were free to be themselves. Constantine the emperor even supported them. Constantine is trying to work out the politics in the church and he is making laws that change Christians lives to back to before the persecutions. I think Eusebius maybe missing some stuff because he is really bias of Constantine. He knows Constantine will probably read it so he is trying to write good stuff.
ReplyDeleteLike the rest of my classmates have written, Eusebius is optimistic because Constantine isn't an emperor that will fight Christianity. He is an emperor that will embrace it. He is the first fully attested Christian Emperor and this is great news. No longer do Christians need to hide in the shadows. The religion can spread without worry of persecution or death. Eusebius really has nothing bad to say at all about Constantine.
ReplyDeleteEusebius does seem more optimistic in this last part of the book. He sees that Constantine is an emperor that isn't going to persecute the Christians, he's not going to fight Christianity in any way. He sees that Constantine instead is going to embrace Christianity and will treat the Christians much better than those of the past. Eusebius is optimistic because he believes that Christians won't have to be afraid anymore.
ReplyDeleteMallory Schlechter