Thursday, May 21, 2015

Thoughts from Eusebius....something different.

Image obtained from Wikipedia

A note to readers:  I've added this post as something different as far as topic matter.  I've always been fascinated by the early Christian Church and have spent considerable time reading texts regarding the initial fathers of the Christian movement.  The likes of Paul, Origen, Tertullian, et al, continues to intrigue.  What one takes from the blog post below concerning UFOs is somewhat at the discretion of the reader, however I see elements of the necessity of the employment of critical and rational thinking hinted at by the post's subject matter.  I readily profess that I'm not an expert in the area of antiquity, but am drawn to it none the less...Tim Hebert

A few years back I had procured The History of the Church, written by the early Christian scholar, Eusebius.  This work was translated by G. A. Williamson (1965) with an introduction by Andrew Louth, 1988.  Eusebius' great work opened the door as to pointing me in the right direction as far as the works of the first generation of the Apostolic Fathers.

During Eusebius' scholarly works, he was Bishop of Caesarea. ca 313 AD.  The city of Jerusalem was a mere shell of it's former self as a result of the decimation of the Jewish population and culture by the Roman legions under Titus and Vespasian following the two Jewish Wars (66 AD, 135 AD). Even in name Jerusalem had changed to Aelia Capitolina. Thus was the changing landscape of politics and geography during Eusebius' times.

Andrew Louth, in his introduction, stated that though Eusebius was a great scholar, he was lacking in producing original Christian thought. This may be true to some extent, but Louth seems to glance over the fact that for all practical purposes, Eusebius was issued what tantamount to a gag order after being denounced at the council of Antioch in 325 for his support of Arius and Arianism.  So from then on it seems that Eusebius had to walk and talk a fine line in order to avoid excommunication from the Church.  To this day, Eusebius is largely forgotten, or ignored, by the Catholic Church.  Such is the price that he paid going against the grain of church politics.

The following is an excerpt from The History of the Church which I believe provides great insight into the past thinking of our religious scholars and a hint at some of Eusebius' original thoughts:

Why He was not preached long ago, as He is now, to all men an to every, what follows will make clear.  It was impossible for the teaching of Christ in all its wisdom and virtue to be grasped by the human race in its former state.  At the very beginning, after the original life of blessedness, the first man disregarded the divine command and fell into this mortal, transitory state, receiving this earth with its curse in place of the former heavenly delights.

His descendants, who peopled all our world, showed themselves much worse, apart from one or two, plunging into a beastly existence and a life not worth living.  City and state, arts and sciences meant nothing to them; laws and statutes, morality and philosophy were not even names...nature's gift of reason and germs of thought and culture in the human soul were destroyed by the immensity of their deliberate wickedness.


Eusebius


I've bold printed the main idea that is of importance, yet kept the full paragraphs as to keep it in the context of Eusebius' thoughts.  True the above passage pertains to Christian thought as Eusebius provides a rationalization for the coming of Christ at a specific time period in our history, but what is of interest is his reasoning that certain aspects of man's intellectual development had to be achieved to set the stage for the coming of Christ.

Let's look at Eusebius' words in a secular light.  Man's cognitive state had to evolve beyond the old hunter-gatherer days and his nomadic lifestyle to embrace new ways of thinking. Eusebius in two paragraphs of his writings encapsulates the intellectual impact of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Persian civilizations.  Man's ability to develop the concepts of art, science and philosophy and cultivate the fruits of these intellectual endeavors was paramount for the continuing and the fine tuning of rational thought.  It is from the nurturing of these disciplines that a sense of governance, law, morality and ethics came into being albeit not perfect, yet constantly evolving as such concepts are never static. 

9 comments:

  1. Believe that you may see not see that you may believe. Is not faith a valid means to knowledge? Isn't faith exercised all the time in other arenas and we don't question the results? Why must faith when applied to religion be held to a higher standard?

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Eusebius was a borderline Arian who finally levied his vote with the Trinitarians. He saw the light

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  4. I had no idea your interests extend to ancient history; mine do as well. As a student of history, I've always been surprised at the extent of our ignorance. There are always going to be historical mysteries, which accounts for my own fascination.

    You should consider reading the magazine "Biblical Archaeology Review". It's a very well balanced and detailed consideration, and it's very much up to date regarding newly discovered finds, and it's very well researched. They just recently published their entire archive to CD, and I'm sure I'll eventually pick it up. They have also published many books discussing such matters and have made them freely available.

    If you're interested at all, you should examine their web presence: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/ I strongly recommend it.

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  5. Ufodebunker,

    More likely that Eusebius was forced to see the light.

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  6. James,

    Before I became involved with the Malmstrom story, I was actively researching ancient Christian writings. This more for a personal edification effort. I have not one book on UFOs, yet my personal library has various books on Christian philosophy and my collection of Civil War books and biographies.

    I once had a subscription to Biblical Archaeology, but this was 25 or so years ago. I'll take a look at your link. I came across Peter Kirby's site some years ago and found it to have a lot of good information.

    http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

    If you haven't, take a look, I think you'll find it interesting. Good to hear from you as it's been awhile. Hope all is well with you and your family.

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  7. Thanks for asking about my family -- we're doing well, as I hope you and your family are.

    I went right to the link you posted above, and I have to tell you, a website that doesn't open on a full page advert with a nice photo tends to catch my attention. And a website that starts off with nothing more than a long and thorough list of resources tends to keep it. Thanks -- it's now on my favorites bar and I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time there (what little I have anyway). I'm very much impressed by the extent of the sources listed. In my opinion, history that depends on only one resource isn't history; it's merely an unsupported point of view that usually demands a closer examination of the author. That's a lesson that I've found useful when applied to Ufology as well!

    All the best,
    James

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  8. Interesting topic for sure. Question if you don't mind me asking. Was the early Church more Catholic or Protestant? I am a lapsed Catholic...black sheep of the family LOL It seems the early Church was more Catholic. That being said I am still a Protestant invert. What say you folks? It would be interesting to hear from believers and nonbelievers alike!

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  9. I'd have to say the at the beginning it was strictly a Jewish movement as all of the early Church fathers were Jewish. With the heavy influence of the theological thoughts of Paul, the church eventually morphed into Catholicism. It would not be until Martin Luther and others moved away from Catholicism to form what is now considered Protestantism. Even then Protestant movements split into different segments: Methodist, Baptist and so on. This is an over simplification of course, but this gives a general idea.

    BTW, I'm Catholic, but grew up in a heavy Southern Baptist and Church of Christ area in Texas. Most of the guys I knew in college were studying to enter into seminary school. As a going away gift after receiving my Air Force officer commission, those guys gave me a nice research Bible. I still have that Bible and reference it. I also have a Catholic Bible.

    I plan to post a few more articles on this topic. We'll see how that goes.

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