The Library of Lactantius

The Library of Lactantius
Author: Robert Maxwell Ogilvie
Publisher:
Total Pages: 140
Release: 1978
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Lactantius has always commanded respect and admiration for his Latinity, but of his numerous works on various subjects only his Christian writings survive. He lived (c. AD 240-320) in an age of bureaucracy, inflation and narrow-minded ideology when civilized men had lost confidence in their world and when powerful forces were threatening the very existence and freedom of the Roman way of life. At such a time of crisis, with all the resources of the classical inheritance behind him, he turned to the god of the Christians. This makes his writing all the more significant for us today.Lactantius was not a great thinker, but he is very representative of his times, and he is perhaps the most Classical of all early Christian writers. This study provides a detailed analysis of his literary background and of the books that he actually read.

On the Deaths of the Persecutors

On the Deaths of the Persecutors
Author: Lucius Cæcilius Firmianus Lactantius
Publisher: Arx Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: History
ISBN:

Called the Christian Cicero by readers ancient and modern alike, Lactantius is best known for his monumental work of early Christian apologetics entitled The Divine Institutes. Though less appreciated, On the Deaths of the Persecutors is a primary source of considerable historical import containing details about the Roman Empire of the early 4th century AD that are found nowhere else. In this unique work, Lactantius created a hybrid of history and apologetics, making an argument for the truth of the Christian religion based on the fates of those emperors who had been the most egregious persecutors of Christians. Based in Diocletian's imperial capital of Nicomedia and later in Gaul at the court of Constantine, Lactantius was perfectly positioned to record these momentous events. As history, On the Deaths of the Persecutors is a key source for Diocletian’s Tetrarchy, the Great Persecution, and the rise of Constantine. It is an invaluable supplement to the broader Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus as well as his panegyrical Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, taking its place among the most important primary sources for this era of transition, turmoil and consolidation. This new edition features the classic late 18th century translation of Lord Hailes which was utilized in The Ante-Nicene Fathers series in 1905. Updated for a modern audience, the text of the translation effectively mirrors the erudite and lively prose of Lactantius's compelling and occasionally lurid historical narrative. A new introduction and extensive commentary has been added for this new edition to help make the text more approachable for the student or general reader. An index has also been included along with an updated list of references and suggested further reading.

The Making of a Christian Empire

The Making of a Christian Empire
Author: Elizabeth DePalma Digeser
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801435942

"The Making of a Christian Empire is the first full-length book to interpret the Divine Institutes as a historical source. Exploring Lactantius's use of theology, philosophy, and rhetorical techniques, Digeser perceives the Divine Institutes as a sophisticated proposal for a monotheistic state that intimately connected the religious policies of Diocletian and Constantine, both of whom used religion to fortify and unite the Roman Empire."--BOOK JACKET.

Apocalyptic Spirituality

Apocalyptic Spirituality
Author: Bernard McGinn
Publisher: Paulist Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 1979
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780809122424

This book makes available major texts in the Christian apocalyptic literature from the 4th to the 16th centuries. The apocalyptic tradition is that of traditional philosophy based on revelation and concerned with the end of the world.

The Ethics of Suicide

The Ethics of Suicide
Author: M. Pabst Battin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 753
Release: 2015
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0195135997

Is suicide wrong, profoundly morally wrong? Almost always wrong, but excusable in a few cases? Sometimes morally permissible? Imprudent, but not wrong? Is it sick, a matter of mental illness? Is it a private matter or a largely social one? Could it sometimes be right, or a "noble duty," or even a fundamental human right? Whether it is called "suicide" or not, what role may a person play in the end of his or her own life? This collection of primary sources--the principal texts of ethical interest from major writers in western and nonwestern cultures, from the principal religious traditions, and from oral cultures where observer reports of traditional practices are available, spanning Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania, the Arctic, and North and South America--facilitates exploration of many controversial practical issues: physician-assisted suicide or aid-in-dying; suicide in social or political protest; self-sacrifice and martyrdom; suicides of honor or loyalty; religious and ritual practices that lead to death, including sati or widow-burning, hara-kiri, and sallekhana, or fasting unto death; and suicide bombings, kamikaze missions, jihad, and other tactical and military suicides. This collection has no interest in taking sides in controversies about the ethics of suicide; rather, rather, it serves to expand the character of these debates, by showing them to be multi-dimensional, a complex and vital part of human ethical thought.

Prayer Book of the Early Christians

Prayer Book of the Early Christians
Author: John A. McGuckin
Publisher: Paraclete Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2012-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1612610382

Designed for any 21st-century Christian, this prayer book gathers prayers and rituals from the ancient Church (especially early Greek Christianity), re-presenting them for the use of Christians at home, in small prayer groups, cohorts, and house churches. It offers a structure of prayer offices and blessing rituals for all times of day and year, and articulates many religious needs including bereavement, house blessing, praise, worry, gratitude, and thanksgiving.

Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity

Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity
Author: A.D.(Doug) Lee
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136617388

In this book A.D. Lee charts the rise to dominance of Christianity in the Roman empire. Using translated texts he explains the fortunes of both Pagans and Christians from the upheavals of the 3rd Century to the increasingly tumultuous times of the 5th and 6th centuries. The book also examines important themes in Late Antiquity such as the growth of monasticism, the emerging power of bishops and the development of pilgrimage, and looks at the fate of other significant religious groups including the Jews, Zoroastrians and Manichaeans.

Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age

Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age
Author: Jonathan Bardill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2012
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0521764238

"Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. The book explores the emperor's image as conveyed through literature, art, and architecture, and shows how Constantine reconciled the tradition of imperial divinity with his monotheistic faith. It demonstrates how the traditional themes and imagery of kingship were exploited to portray the emperor as the saviour of his people and to assimilate him to Christ. This is the first book to study simultaneously both archaeological and historical information to build a picture of the emperor's image and propaganda. It is extensively illustrated" --Provided by publisher.

Liberty in the Things of God

Liberty in the Things of God
Author: Robert Louis Wilken
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019-04-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300226632

From one of the leading historians of Christianity comes this sweeping reassessment of religious freedom, from the church fathers to John Locke In the ancient world Christian apologists wrote in defense of their right to practice their faith in the cities of the Roman Empire. They argued that religious faith is an inward disposition of the mind and heart and cannot be coerced by external force, laying a foundation on which later generations would build. Chronicling the history of the struggle for religious freedom from the early Christian movement through the seventeenth century, Robert Louis Wilken shows that the origins of religious freedom and liberty of conscience are religious, not political, in origin. They took form before the Enlightenment through the labors of men and women of faith who believed there could be no justice in society without liberty in the things of God. This provocative book, drawing on writings from the early Church as well as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, reminds us of how "the meditations of the past were fitted to affairs of a later day."

Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium

Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
Author: Philip L. Reynolds
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108590624

Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium is a systematic collection of essays describing how Christian leaders and scholars of the first millennium in the West contributed to law and jurisprudence and used written norms and corrective practices to maintain social order and to guide people from this life into the next. With chapters on topics such as Roman and post-Roman law, church councils, the papacy, and the relationship between royal and ecclesiastical authority, as well as on individual authors such as Lactantius, Ambrosiaster, Augustine, Leo I, Gelasius I, and Gregory the Great, this book invites a more holistic and realistic appreciation of early-medieval contributions to the history of law and jurisprudence for entry-level students and scholars alike. Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium provides a fresh look, from a new perspective, enabling readers to see these familiar authors in a fresh light.