 "An invaluable reference!" | 2009-11-26 |
| - Reviewed By Nathan A. Edwards from Jacksonville, FL USA |
As a reference it is invaluable. Some, however, will place greater importance upon the vivid reminders portrayed throughout that Christianity has persevered and thrived until today because of the extraordinary strength of faith and conviction displayed by the earliest believers and those courageously facing persecution in their footsteps. Nonetheless, Eusebius makes no excuses for the missteps of his predecessors or contemporaries, owning the mistakes which he believed led to discipline for the sake of correction. The History of the Church serves as a blazing beacon of how fortunate many Christians are today and how difficult it still is for many around the world.
Interwoven with Eusebius' chronology of the most severe of the early persecutions is his primary purpose for writing The History. That is, relating the apostolic succession from Christ's death and resurrection to the author's own time. Within this succession, he describes, while sparring few references, current affairs in relation to each period of time being discussed. It is primarily this collection of references, as Eusebius contributes few original thoughts, which has likely secured his work's preservation for generations to come. Even if The History is read for nothing more than its value as a convenient work of reference, it is worth the time spent doing so. Whatever the reason, every Christian should read Eusebius' History of the Church. |
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| "Great Church History Book - Superb" | 2009-11-07 |
| - Reviewed By GloryNow.co.uk from UK |
The History of the Church by Eusebius (Penguin Classics)
You read the book of Acts from the Holy Bible and want to know where you go from there in regards to Christian history, then this book is the one - from the life of Christ up to Constantine - the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire.
Some bits are complex and a little hard to understand, but Eusebius quotes so many of the apostle, forefather and church fathers and goes through the apostolic successions of the various sees.
Originally written over a period of 20 years and compiled into 10 books by a man who owned no laptop, had no internet access, printing press and quotes a few hundred sources is absolutely remarkable - all in the 3rd century.
Great time-line of the sees (Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch) and emperors at the back and an index of names (though not all names in the book)are in the index! 1983 edition.
Mentions various people whom are mention in the N/T - obscure names and converts of the apostle Paul and what they done and even some of the relatives of Jesus, cousins, uncles etc. How the N/T and O/T books were compiled and which ones were considered un-canonical.
Mentions about persecutions, rise of heretics, defences, other books etc.
In essence Eusebius book is superb and should be compulsory for all Bible College students and Christian workers. |
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 "Warning!" | 2009-03-27 |
| - Reviewed By Theology graduate student from Chicago, IL |
Williamson's translation is great, and Louth has produced a fine introduction for a foundational text of Christian ecclesiastical history. However, this Penguin edition has one serious drawback:
Eusebius spends pages at a time quoting from his sources. Penguin has decided to render these selections in what appears to be -5pt. font. While that might be an exaggeration, I am not exaggerating when I say that this tiny type makes reading these sections an exhausting task, and can chip away at the reader's attention, hindering absorption of the material. You might be better off going to a bookstore where you can browse through different editions and see what seems most readable to you. |
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| "History of the Early Church" | 2009-03-12 |
| - Reviewed By Fortune favors the Bold from The thriving metropolis of Masury, OH |
| The writings of the Greek Christian Eusebius, born in the late 3rd Century AD, remain the most in-depth and accurate source we have on the first three centuries of Christianity's existence. Eusebius gives a detailed account of the various persecutions early Christians faced, as well as the ultimate triumph of Biblical Christianity over an assortment of heresies. This Penguin edition of Eusebius' histories is also useful for a meticulous glossary of proper names, a handy `who's who' for the early Church, its leaders, patrons, writers, historians, and enemies. |
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| "Early church" | 2008-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By sjrobin from St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| Terrific book about the early church when church growth was the fastest and greatest it has ever been. Great service from the supplier and the book is just what I needed. |
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| "Faithful account of Christian churches from the first century to the third" | 2008-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By TRUTH-Seeker from Kirkland, WA USA |
| As a Bishop who suffered for Christ's sake and honored another martyr of the faith, his Christian pastor-Bishop Pamphili, Eusebius' humble compilation of the many Christian historical accounts and writings that were available to most Christians around 250-330 a.d., is enlightening and wonderfully establishes the accounts of Christian faithfulness to the apostles and their trusted pastors whom they put in charge of various local churches around the world. I felt as if I was walking with the disciples who had been personally taught by Christ on how our LORD was obviously found within all the pages of the Bible parts that we now call "old" testament. In the pages of this faithful historical account, the Bible is presented as a unified testimony to the glory of Christ our God. Obviously this causes great troubles for the humanistic led mondernist who wants to rewrite Church history to include every vile modern interpretation of the Christian Faith. In Eusebius, you will find no support for the false modern "scholars" who try so hard to take away from Christ's Glory by making God only a man made in our image, and you will find no support for many other false teachings in regards to purity and sexual destructive behaviors that now plague the modern world. br /br /While a modern Roman catholic might get frustrated with no substance for some of their doctrines in early Church history (i.e. papal supreme rulership) and find the Church relying on the faithfulness of The Holy Spirit's discernment granted to councils of persecuted members and pastors of the Christian church, Eusebius also troubles the antiRoman catholic divisiveness that have plagued the modern western churches in the name of nondenominational and denominational splits based on modern private interpretations of Holy Scripture. br /br /This account of early Christian history from the book of Acts for the next 250+ years, is a must read for all Christians who want to honor the heart intent of the reformation leaders, by leading all believes to be united in our following the ONE understanding of Christian Bible rather than the modern divisiveness of every man becoming his own pope to privately interpret the Bible according to his own "understanding". The faithful apostolic understanding of our Christian Faith of the first centuries of the church is wonderfully shown in the pages of this humble servant Eusebius Pamphili. Eusebius later struggled in his own personal walk of faith, but thankfully got back on the same path of all Christians as he personally heard united accounts by all Pastors who faithfully declared the same message in regards to the Eternal Deity of our LORD Jesus Christ that had been taught to every Church around the world, by all faithful Apostles and their personally trained pastors who kept the Faith in Churches in Antioch, Phillipi, Corinth, etc. all around the world. br /br /My Faith was greatly encouraged by this earliest compilation of Christian historical accounts; however, I was also challenged to throw out my antiRoman bias and to join in the reformation call to return to the early Christian Church's ONE understanding of our Christian Faith as found in the Orthodox Catholic churches in every faithful Christian Church around the world as it has been preserved for almost 2000 years in the continuity of our One Faith, One LORD, One Baptism, in the Orthodox Church, whether in Antioch, "where they were first called Christians" or in Phillipi, Galatia or wherever the Gospel was preached in the ancient Greek and Antiochian Orthodox Church.br /br /The testimonies in Eusebius clearly show that the Christian Church never wavered from the Faith no matter how many heretics attacked our apostolically faithful understanding of the Christian Faith as taught by our LORD, and no matter how many of our pastors, bishops and family members suffered horrifying physical tortures at the hands of our enemies. It is also wonderful to find Emperor of Rome Constantine to provide some relief to some Christians from our persecution, although later Roman emperors did sometimes return to persecuting our fellow brethren and pastors. br /br /I found a beautiful picture in the writings of Eusebius of Emperor of Rome Constantine, bowing down to our persecuted body members of Christ, as we read of Bishops coming to our Council with one eye gouged out, or with missing limbs or with grave marks of torture on other parts of their bodies. Unfortunately for some of us, this does put a damper on the modern fictionalized theory that somehow Emperor of Rome Constantine made himself ruler of the Christian Church and brought forth changes in our doctrine and understanding of our One Faith; but thankfully, once we begin to understand the faithfulness of The Holy Spirit in the calling of faithful pastors and members of the body of Christ, we are no longer stuck in privately interpreting the Bible according to our own liking, or in a protestant or roman catholic view, but all of us can once again return to the faithful Orthodox understanding of our Christian Faith.br /br /An additional follow up to this book may be found in "ACTS" by Jaroslav Pelikan, the great Lutheran theologian and Yale Historian, who later found the same faithful Orthodox Catholic Christian Faith that almost all members of the early Christian councils followed. [...] |
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