The Eusebians: The Polemic of Athanasius of Alexandria and the Construction of the `Arian Controversy'

Special import

Estimated despatch time 2 - 4 weeks

Introduction
Part I
1 The polemical writings of Athanasius: chronology and context
Part II
2 Athanasius' earliest polemical work: the `Eusebians' in the Epistula Encyclica of 339
3 The origin of the `Eusebians' in the polemic of Athanasius
4 The influence of Athanasius' polemic 339-46
Part III
5 Who were the `Eusebians'?
6 The `Eusebians' in action
7 The `Arianism' of the `Eusebians'
Conclusion

About
Explore

About

A historical and theological re-evaluation of the polemical writings of Athanasius of Alexandria (bishop 328-73), who would become known to later Christian generations as a saint and a champion of orthodoxy, and as the defender of the original Nicene Creed of 325 against the `Arian heresy'. For much of his own lifetime, however, Athanasius was an extremely controversial figure, and his writings, although highly influential on modern interpretations of the fourth-century Church and the so-called `Arian Controversy', display bias and distortion. David M. Gwynn examines Athanasius' polemic in detail, and in particular his construction of those he condemns as `Arian' as a single `heretical party', 'the Eusebians'. Gwynn argues that Athanasius' image of the Church polarized between his own `orthodoxy' and the `Arianism' of the `Eusebians' is a polemical construct, which has seriously impaired our knowledge of the development of Christianity in the crucial period in which the Later Roman Empire became ever increasingly a Christian empire.

Book

Contents

Download queue