Variorum Collected Studies
3 total works
CS342
In this second volume of his articles, Henry Chadwick deals with the social and intellectual history of Christianity in the period from the 1st to the 6th centuries, from St Paul up to Philoponus. The main emphasis, however, is on the great debates and struggles that took place in the Church between the 3rd and 5th centuries, in both the Latin and Greek halves of the Roman world, and with the constant efforts made to ensure doctrinal unity and spiritual and social order in the Christian world. Of the articles, some are concerned principally with the organization of the Church or with the role of the bishop and the sources for his authority, others look directly at the theological disputes and the dividing line betwen 'heresy' and 'orthodoxy'. One particular group focuses on Augustine, examining his views on the position of pagans and on the ascetic ideal, and delineating his changing attitude towards Manichaeism.
This third collection of articles by Henry Chadwick brings together a series of studies on Augustine, written in light of the new texts now available, and on other individual Christian authors of antiquity, in other words of the age when Christianity was acquiring its now familiar shape. A number of papers published here appear in print for the first time, or make accessible to English readers studies which first saw the light in German. These include a substantial discussion of the idea of conscience, important in the highly ethical context of early Christianity, and a study of ancient anthologies, and are complemented by other essays on general themes in the history of the early Church.