Studies of Arianism: Chiefly Referring to the Character and Chronology of the Reaction Which Followed the Council of Nicæa (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Studies of Arianism: Chiefly Referring to the Character and Chronology of the Reaction Which Followed the Council of Nicæa

The present work is not so much a formal history of Arian ism as a review of the forces at work in the different stages of the controversy, traced out with special regard to the sequence of events and to their connexion with the social characteristics and political history of the Empire. Thus I have felt at liberty in most cases to omit detailed accounts of well-known scenes, and sometimes to leave out subjects of great importance. Anything indeed pretending to the character of a monograph would have been quite beyond my power in the fragments of time which have been at my disposal.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Studies of Arianism: Chiefly Referring to the Character and Chronology of the Reaction Which Followed the Council of Nicæa

The Second Edition is in the main a reprint of the first, with a few passages inserted (by the courtesy of Messrs Longmans) from my Arian Controversy, a few corrections and amendments, and some account taken of more recent work on the subject.

I have not however been in a position to give it the thorough revision I could have wished, so that some things are left unaltered which do not now fully satisfy me. The whole question of Antony in particular urgently needs a com prehensive revision from the Coptic side, which few of us are competent to give. Dom Butler has made a good be ginning, though he rightly points out that others may differ greatly from him in their estimate of some conspicuous parts of the evidence. Without entering on particular criticism, it may safely be said that the investigation needs to be much more closely connected with the whole development of Roman Egypt. What for example was the exact relation of Christian asceticism to the old pagan asceticism?

I may add that I cannot follow another of my critics in setting down Athanasius as a genuine ascetic. If indeed all self-denial be called asceticism, there must be a good deal of asceticism in every character that is not contemptible: but if the word be limited as it ought to be to self-denial resting on an idea that the pleasures of sense are of the nature of sin, there are comparatively few traces of it in Athanasius.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.