Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART ONE The Beginnings: The New Testament to Irenaeus
- PART TWO THE THIRD CENTURY
- PART THREE FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE: FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
- A LITERARY GUIDE
- 21 Classical genres in Christian guise; Christian genres in classical guise
- 22 Arnobius and Lactantius
- 23 Eusebius and the birth of church history
- 24 The fourth-century Alexandrians: Athanasius and Didymus
- 25 Palestine: Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius
- 26 The Cappadocians
- 27 Fourth-century Latin writers: Hilary, Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose
- 28 Jerome and Rufinus
- 29 Augustine
- 30 John Chrysostom and the Antiochene School to Theodoret of Cyrrhus
- 31 Cyril of Alexandria
- 32 Hagiography
- 33 Ephrem and the Syriac Tradition
- 34 The literature of the monastic movement
- 35 Women and words: texts by and about women
- 36 Conciliar records and canons
- B CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD"
- References
22 - Arnobius and Lactantius
from A - LITERARY GUIDE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Assisted by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART ONE The Beginnings: The New Testament to Irenaeus
- PART TWO THE THIRD CENTURY
- PART THREE FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE: FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
- A LITERARY GUIDE
- 21 Classical genres in Christian guise; Christian genres in classical guise
- 22 Arnobius and Lactantius
- 23 Eusebius and the birth of church history
- 24 The fourth-century Alexandrians: Athanasius and Didymus
- 25 Palestine: Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius
- 26 The Cappadocians
- 27 Fourth-century Latin writers: Hilary, Victorinus, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose
- 28 Jerome and Rufinus
- 29 Augustine
- 30 John Chrysostom and the Antiochene School to Theodoret of Cyrrhus
- 31 Cyril of Alexandria
- 32 Hagiography
- 33 Ephrem and the Syriac Tradition
- 34 The literature of the monastic movement
- 35 Women and words: texts by and about women
- 36 Conciliar records and canons
- B CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD"
- References
Summary
Rhetoric was the core of ancient education. The production of ‘good men skilled in speaking’ was not a literary affectation; it was a practical necessity in a world where public business was carried on orally. Rhetorical correctness became, therefore, the mark of the educated man; a writer who could not express himself properly was one who would not be taken seriously, like a modern scientist ignorant of mathematics. Lactantius and Arnobius were both professors of rhetoric; indeed, though neither mentions the other in his surviving works, Arnobius taught Lactantius. Both men knew that their intelligent contemporaries despised Christianity because it was crudely expressed: ‘The language is trivial and sordid,’ Arnobius’ opponents complained (Nat. 1.58.2); ‘They think nothing true except what is sweet to listen to,’ wrote Lactantius; ‘they do not therefore believe in the divine utterances because they lack adornment, and they do not trust those who interpret them because such people are generally ignorant’ (Inst. 5.1.17–18). The objection was not frivolous; it expressed a sense that Christianity was fundamentally incompatible with what was known about the way the world worked. The Christians were frankly stupid; stultitia, said their persecutors, had laid hold of them (so Galerius: Mort. 34.2; cf. Inst. 5.18.12). Lactantius and Arnobius confronted this judgment on their convictions in contrasting ways.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature , pp. 259 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
and , eds, Christian Origins. Theology, Rhetoric and Community (London: Routledge, 1998).
Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004).
Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
and , eds, Arianism after Arius. Essays on the Development of the Fourth-Century Trinitarian Controversies (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993).
New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).
Julian the Apostate (London: Duckworth, 1978).
Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Studien zur Geschichte der Homöer. Der Osten bis zum Ende der homöischen Reichskirche (Tübingen: Mohr, 1988).
‘The Patrons of Pelagius: The Roman Aristocracy between East and West’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 21 (1970) (reprinted in ).Google Scholar
Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London: Faber, 1972).
Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London: Faber, 1982).
Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).
Authority and the Sacred (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
The Rise of Western Christendom. Triumph and Diversity, AD 200–1000, The Making of Europe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996).Google Scholar
‘Lactantius’ De Ave Phoenice and the Religious Policy of Constantine the Great’, Studia Patristica
19 (1989).Google Scholar
The Library of Lactantius, Harvard Dissertations in Classics (New York: Garland Press, 1990).Google Scholar
‘Goldene Zeit und Paradies auf Erden (Laktanz, Inst. 5, 5–8)’, Würzburger Jahrbucher für Altertumswissenschaft n.f. 4 (1978), 5 (1979).Google Scholar
The Making of a Heretic: Gender Authority and the Priscillianist Controversy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
Begotten, Not Made: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
and , eds, The Cambridge Ancient History, XIII: The Late Empire, A.D. 337–425 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
‘Apatheia and Sexuality in the Thought of Augustine and Cassian’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
45 (2001).Google Scholar
Geschichte des Papsttums, II (Tübingen: Mohr, 1933).
Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957).
Paulinus Noster. Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, Oxford Early Christian Texts (2000).
‘Les sages de Porphyre et les “viri novi” d’Arnobe’, Revue des Études Latines
31 (1953).Google Scholar
‘Nature and the “Mode of Union”: Late Patristic Models for the Personal Unity of Christ’, in et al., eds, The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002).Google Scholar
‘Eunome l’arien et l’exégèse néo-platonicienne du «Cratyle»’, Revue des etudes grecques
69 (1956).Google Scholar
and , eds, Fifth-Century Gaul: a Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
ed. and trans., Neoplatonic Saints. The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students, Translated Texts for Historians
35 (2000).
‘Die chiliastiche Lehre des Laktanz: methodische und theologische Voraussetzungen und religionsgeschichtlicher Hintergrund’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum
17 (1974).Google Scholar
‘La Doctrine des “viri novi” sur l’Origine et le Sort des âmes’ in Hermétisme et mystique païenne (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1967).Google Scholar
Messalianismus und Antimessalianismus. Ein Beispiel ostkirchliche Ketzergeschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998).
and , eds, Lactance et son temps: recherches actuelles, Théologie historique
48 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1978).
The Donatist Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952).
Der Ausgang des griechisch-römischen Heidentums (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1929).
Gnade als konkrete Freiheit. Eine Untersuchung zur Gnadenlehre des Pelagius (Mainz: Matthias-Grunwald-Verlag, 1972).
‘Le dossier des origines du messalianisme’, in and , eds, Epectasis. Mélanges patristiques offerts au Cardinal Jean Daniélou, (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972).Google Scholar
and , eds, Das Konzil von Chalkedon, 3 vols (Würzburg: EchterVerlag, 1951–4).
ed., Scolies ariennes sur le Concile d’Aquilée, Sources chrétiennes
267 (1980).
The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. The Arian Controversy 318–381 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988).
The Spirit of God. The Exegesis of 1 & 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1994).
Die dualistischen Zusätze und die Kaiseranreden bei Lactantius. Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte der Divinae Institutiones und der Schrift De Opificio Dei, Abhandlungen der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist. Klasse
1972/2.
‘Die dualistischen Zusätze und die Kaiseranreden bei Lactantius’, Studia Patristica
13/Texte und Untersuchungen
116 (1975).Google Scholar
Die Bibelepik der lateinischen Spätantike. Formgeschichte einer erbaulichen Gattung, Bd. 1 (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1975).
Communities of the Blessed. Social Environment and Change in Northern Italy, AD 200–400, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999).
‘Resistance to the Virginal Ideal in Late Fourth-Century Rome: The Case of Jovinian’, Theological Studies
48 (1987).Google Scholar
The Later Roman Empire, 284–602, 3 vols + maps (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964).
Constantius II. und die christliche Kirche (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977).
A History of Neo-Arianism, Patristic Monographs Series
8 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1979).Google Scholar
Kirche der Traditoren oder kirche der Martyrer?: die vorgeschichte des Donatismus (Innsbruck: Tyrolia, 1986).
Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
‘The “Arian” Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered’, Theological Studies
48 (1987).Google Scholar
Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1999).
‘Ousia and Hypostasis: The Cappadocian Settlement and the Theology of “One Hypostasis”’, in , and , eds, The Trinity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
‘Marcellus of Ancyra and the Councils of 325: Antioch, Ancyra, and Nicaea’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 43 (1992).Google Scholar
‘Marcellus of Ancyra, Defender of the Faith against Heretics — and Pagans’, Studia Patristica
37 (2001).Google Scholar
Lattanzio nella storia della linguaggio e del pensiero teologico preniceno (Zurich: Pas-Verlag, 1970).
Apollinarius von Laodicea (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1969).
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
‘Christianity and Dissent in Roman Africa: changing perspectives in recent work’, Studies in Church History
9 (1972).Google Scholar
Christianity in the Roman world (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974).
From Augustine to Gregory the Great (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).
The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
‘Donatus, Donatism’, in , ed., Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).Google Scholar
Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris: E de Boccard, 1938; with Retractatio, 1946).Google Scholar
Arnobius of Sicca: The Case Against the Pagans, Ancient Christian Writers
7, 8 (1949).
‘The Non-Cyprianic Scripture Texts in Lactantius’, Divinae Institutiones’, Vigiliae Christianae
36 (1982).Google Scholar
Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).
ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963).
Lactance et la Bible: une propédeutique latine à la lecture de la Bible dans l’Occident constantinien, 2 vols (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1982).
‘The Source of the Dates in Lactantius’s Divine Institutes’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 36 (1985).Google Scholar
‘Flight in Persecution as Imitation of Christ: Lactantius, Divine Institutes IV, 18, 1–2’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 30 (1989).Google Scholar
and , ‘Pelage et Pelagianisme’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, histoire et doctrine
XII. 2 (1987).Google Scholar
‘Impassible Suffering? Divine Passion and Fifth-Century Christology’, Theological Studies
58 (1997).Google Scholar
The Library of Lactantius (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978).
L’homme antique et chrétien: l’anthropologie de Lactance, Théologie historique
59 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1981).
Lactance: étude sur le mouvement philosophique et religieux sous le règne de Constantin (Paris: Hachette, 1901).
and , eds, L’Évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, (Rome: École française de Rome, 1998).
Pelagius: a Reluctant Heretic (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988).
The Letters of Pelagius and His Followers (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991).
Das Konzil von Konstantinopel und sein Symbol. Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des 2. Ökumenischen Konzils (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1965).
‘The De Opificio Dei: the Workmanship of God and Lactantius’, Classical Quarterly
37 (1982).Google Scholar
Ascetics, Authority and the Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).
, On Roman Time. The Codex-Calender of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage
17 (Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford: University of California Press, 1990).
Two Ancient Christologies (London and New York: SPCK, 1940).
The Council of Chalcedon (London: SPCK, 1953).
, Das Konzilsidee der alten Kirche, Konziliengeschichte, Reihe B: Untersuchungen1 (Paderborn and Zurich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1979).
Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
La Crisi ariana nel IV secolo, Studia Ephemeridis «Augustinianum»
11 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum «Augustinianum», 1975).
‘The Life and Literary Activity of Lactantius’, Studia Patristica
1/Texte und Untersuchungen
63 (1957).Google Scholar
‘Working the Earth of the Heart’: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts and Language to AD 431 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
‘Ein enzyklisches Schreiben der Synode von Alexandrien (362)’, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
79 (1988).Google Scholar
Hellenic Religion and Christianization c.370–529, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1993, 1995).
Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000).
Asterius von Kappadokien: Die Theologische Fragmente. Einleitung, Kritischer Text, Ubersetzung und Kommentar (Leiden: Brill, 1993).
‘The Syntagmation of Aetius the Anomean’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s.19 (1968).Google Scholar
‘Pelagianism in the East’, in , ed., The Making of Orthodoxy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
Arius. Heresy and Tradition (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1987; 2nd edn, revised with appendix, London: SCM, 2001).
Laktanz und die philosophische Gnosis: Untersuchungen zu Geschtihte und Terminologie der gnostischen Erlosungsvorstellung (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1960).
‘The God of the Greeks and the Nature of Religious Language’, in and , eds, Early Christian Literature and the Greek Intellectual Tradition: Festschrift for R. M. Grant, Théologie Historique
53 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1980).Google Scholar
From Nicaea to Chalcedon (London: SCM, 1983).
‘The Rhetorical Schools and Their Influence on Patristic Exegesis’, in , ed., The Making of Orthodoxy. Essays in honour of Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
‘Exegetical Method and Scriptural Proof: the Bible in Doctrinal Debate’, Studia Patristica
24 (1989).Google Scholar
‘Paideia and the Myth of Static Dogma’, in and , eds, The Making and Remaking of Christian Doctrine: Essays in Honour of Maurice Wiles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).Google Scholar