Church and Empire (Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources)

163 Pages·2016·3.32 MB·English

by  Maria E Doerfler (Author

EARLY CHRISTIAN SOURCES
AD FONTES:
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Presenting essential ancient texts for students of early Christianity fll
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“The volumes in the Ad Fontes series invite readers “to return to the sources,” to discover first- , Etz
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faith and practice came to adopt its basic shape, but they also summon contemporary readers
to consider how the events, insights, and social conditions of the early church continue to
inform Christianity in the twenty-first century.”
George Kalantzis, series editor
Church and Empire
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Maria E. Doerfler, volume editor
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The history of the church’s relationship with governing authorities unfolds from its begin-
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nings at the intersection of apprehension and acceptance, collaboration and separation. This
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volume is dedicated to helping students chart this complex narrative through early Christian
writings from the first six centuries of the Common Era.
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Praise for the Ad Fontes series

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“Source books are the bricks and mortar of good pedagogy. Grand sweeping visions and scintil- m
lating ideas may fire the imagination, but only the slow careful parsing of the words and images
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of original documents fixes things in the mind. The Ad Fontes series will give the wisdom of i
the past a voice in an age of forgetfulness.” r
Robert Louis Wilken, emeritus, University of Virginia e
“This innovative series, organized thematically, will allow students of all levels to quickly access
the most useful primary sources in order to unlock those difficult-to-access areas of formative
Christian theology. Indispensable in a variety of different contexts from colleges to churches
to home study, this collection boasts a team of first-rate scholars of Christianity to serve as
guides.”
Nicola Denzey Lewis, Brown University
Maria E. Doerfler, volume editor, is assistant professor of the history of Christianity in Late
Antiquity at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina.
George Kalantzis, series editor, is professor of theology at Wheaton College and director of
The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies.
Religion / Early Christianity / Theology
Church and Empire

Church and Empire
Maria E. Doerfler, volume editor;
George Kalantzis, series editor
Fortress Press
Minneapolis
CHURCH AND EMPIRE
Copyright © 2016 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief
quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be
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Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.
Cover image: Ravenna mosaic/Photo: Will Bergkamp
Cover design: Laurie Ingram
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Print ISBN: 978-1-4514-9635-2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-1693-9
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z329.48-1984.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
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Contents
Series Foreword vii
Introduction xi
Voices from the Margins: The Early Centuries of xiv
Christian Development
The Move toward the Center xix
Christianity at the Heart of the Empire xxvi
Trajectories, East and West xl
Postscript: Christians and the Rise of Islam xliv
Texts and Translations 1
1. Voices from the Margins: The Early 3
Centuries of Christian Development
I. Revelation 13, New Revised Standard Version 3
II. Rom. 13:1-7, New Revised Standard Version 5
III. Correspondence between Pliny and the Emperor 5
Trajan (c. 112 CE)
IV. Acts of the Martyrs of Scili 9
V. Justin Martyr, The First Apology (c. 147–161 CE) 11
2. The Move toward the Center 17
VI. The “Edict of Milan” (313 CE) 17
VII. Eusebius Pamphilius, The Life of Constantine(c. 339 20
CE)
VIII. Ephrem, Third Hymn against Julian (c. 363 CE) 30
3. Christians at the Heart of the Empire 37
IX. The Theodosian Code (438 CE) 37
X. Libanius’s Oration 30: For the Temples (c. 384 CE) 45
XI. Ambrose’s and Symmachus’s Petitions to the 56
Emperor Valentinian Concerning the Altar of Victory
(c. 389 CE)
XII. Ambrose’s Engagement with Emperors Constantius 73
II and Theodosius
XIII. Augustine, The City of God (c. 410–425 CE) 93
4. Trajectories, East and West 107
XIV. Gelasius, Duo Sunt. Letter to Emperor Anastasius 107
(494 CE)
Bibliography 109
Primary Sources 109
Secondary Sources 111
Index 113
Series Foreword
In his book The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, Robert Louis
Wilken reminds us that “Christianity is more than a set of
devotional practices and a moral code: it is also a way of
thinkingaboutGod,abouthumanbeings,abouttheworldand
history” (xiii). From its earliest times, Wilken notes,
Christianity has been inescapably ritualistic, uncompro-
misingly moral, and unapologetically intellectual.
Christianity is deeply rooted in history and continues to be
nourishedbythepast.Thegroundofitsbeingandthebasisof
itsexistencearethelifeofahistoricperson,JesusofNazareth,
whomChristiansidentifyasGod’sunique,historicalactofself-
communication.Jesuspresentedhimselfwithinthecontextof
the history of the people of Israel and the earliest disciples
understoodhimtobetheculminationofthathistory,ushering
inanewchapterinGod’songoingengagementwiththeworld.
The crucial period of the first few centuries of Christianity
isknownasthePatristiceraorthetimeofthechurchfathers.
BeginningafterthebooksoftheNewTestamentwerewritten
and continuing until the dawn of the Middle Ages (c. 100–700
CE), this period encompasses a large and diverse company of
thinkers and personalities. Some came from Greece and Asia
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CHURCH AND EMPIRE
Minor, others from Palestine and Egypt, and still others from
Spain, Italy, North Africa, Syria, and present-day Iraq. Some
wrote in Greek, others in Latin, and others in Syriac, Coptic,
Armenian, and other languages.
Thisistheperiodduringwhichoptionsofbeliefandpractice
were accepted or rejected. Christian teachers and thinkers
forged the language to express Christian belief clearly and
precisely; they oversaw the life of the Christian people in
worshipandcommunalstructure,andclarifiedandappliedthe
worshiping community’s moral norms.
Every generation of Christians that has reconsidered the
adequacyofitspracticeandwitnessandhasreflectedseriously
on what Christians confess and teach has come to recognize
the church fathers as a precious inheritance and source for
instruction and illumination. After the New Testament, no
bodyofChristianliteraturehaslaidgreaterclaimonChristians
as a whole.
The purpose of this series is to invite readers “to return to
the sources,” to discover firsthand the riches of the common
Christian tradition and to gain a deeper understanding of the
faith and practices of early Christianity.When we recognize
how Christian faith and practices developed through time we
also appreciate how Christianity still reflects the events,
thought, and social conditions of this earlier history.
Ad Fontes: Sources of Early Christian Thought makes
foundational texts accessible through modern, readable
English translations and brief introductions that lay out the
context of these documents. Each volume brings together the
bestrecentscholarshiponthetopicandgivesvoicetovarying
points of view to illustrate the diversity of early Christian
thought.Entirewritingsorsectionsofwritingsareprovidedto
allow the reader to see the context and flow of the argument.
viii
SERIES FOREWORD
Together,thesetextsnotonlychroniclehowChristianfaith
and practice came to adopt its basic shape, but they also
summon contemporary readers to consider how the events,
insights,andsocialconditionsoftheearlychurchcontinueto
inform Christianity in the twenty-first century.
George Kalantzis
Series Editor
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