God’s victory (ενθεοσ νικη) – „ideology of triumph” in "Ecclesiastical history" by Eusebius of Cesarea

Sławomir Bralewski

Uniwersytet Łódzki , Poland


Abstract

“Ideology of victory” occupied a very important place in Ecclesiastical His­tory by Eusebius of Caesarea. The victory which he described had a sacred dimen­sion. It was God’s triumph in a war which mankind declared on God himself. Its turning point was the appearance of the Word of God, Wisdom, Jesus Christ, who taught people how to worship God the Father and who was given the power, the eternal reign of the everlasting kingdom. Together with his advent, according to Eusebius, a new Christian people came into being. Since it adopted the lifestyle and customs based on piety originating from the beginnings of mankind, it was not, in fact, a new nation. Christians fought a war against evil spirits, which were hostile to people and which hated God, my means of pure love. Christ, as God’s commander in chief, the Lord and the King, led this battle. Eusebius stated that He armed his army with piety and defeated the enemies completely. Victories achieved by Christians over the enemies of God, inspired by the evil spirit and dominated by hubris, had several dimensions: sacral-military, martyr’s and doc­trinal. The first one corresponded to the Roman tradition and was connected with the choice of the divine patron, to whose power military victories were attributed. Emperor Constantine played a special role in it, as, on the one hand, he chose the Christian God to be his ally and, on the other hand, was himself chosen by God and became a God’s tool. Having defeated God’s enemies, the Emperor put an end to the war between God and mankind and eliminated all the hatred to Him from the world. From the perspective of martyrdom, Christians seemingly suffered a defeat, while their prosecutors saw the triumph of their own gods in the suffer­ing and death of Christians. In fact, martyrs, under the sign of Christ, the great and undefeated athlete, triumphed giving their life for God, which was God’s victory. As a reward for their sacrifice they received the wonderful wreath of immortality. In the third, doctrinal dimension the truth preached by Christians triumphed over false teachings and predominated over them by virtue of their holiness and wis­dom and divine and philosophical principles, on which it was based.

Keywords:

“ideology of victory”, theology of victory, Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, emperor Constantine

Baghos M., The Impact of Martyrdom on Eusebius of Cesare’s Commenrary on Luk: Anticipatingthe Imminent Eschaton, Phronema 28 (2013) 73-100

Balbuza K., Triumfator. Triumf i ideologia zwycięstwa w starożytnym Rzymie epoki cesarstwa, Poznań 2005

Bardill J., Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age, Cambridge 2012

Bardy G., La théologie d’Eusèbe de Césarée d’après l’Histoire ecclésiastique, RHE 50 (1955) 5-20

Barnes T.D., Constantine and Eusebius, Cambridge Mass. – London 1981

Beard M. – North J. – Price S., Religions of Rome, Cambridge 1998

Bralewski S., Euzebiusz z Cezarei wobec aspiracji biskupów Rzymu do prymatu, „Przegląd Nauk Historycznych” 6 (2007) 47-68

Bralewski S., Obraz papiestwa w historiografii kościelnej wczesnego Bizancjum, Łódź 2006

Brodka D., „Teologia zwycięstwa” cesarzy chrześcijańskich a „Historia ecclesiastica” Rufina z Akwilei, „Meander” 54 (1999) 457-464

Burgess R.W., The date and editions of Eusebius’ „Chronici Canones” and „Historia Ecclesiastica”, JTS 48 (1997) 471-504 (Crossref)

Carotenuto E., Tradizione e innovazione nelle Historia ecclesiastica di Eusebio di Cesarea, Naples 2001

Carriker A., The Library of Eusebius of Ce¬sarea, Leiden – Boston 2003 (Crossref)

Cassin M. – Debié M. – Perrin M.-Y., La question des éditions de l’Histoire ecclésiastique et le livre X, w: Eusèbe de Césarée, Histoire ecclésiastique. Commentaire, t. 1: Études d’introduction, éd. S. Morlet – L. Perrone, Paris 2012, 185-206

Combés R., Imperator. Recherches sur l’emploi et la signification du titre d’Imperator dans la Rome républicaine, Paris 1966

Crouzel H., La théologie de l'histoire selon d'Eusèbe de Césarée, w: Qué es la Historia de la Iglesia. Actas del XVI Simposio Internacional de Teología de la Universidad de Navarra Saranyana, ed. I. José – E. de la Lama – M. Lluch-Baixauli, Pamplona 1996, 92-109

Davids A., The Era of the Apostles according to Eusebius’ „History of the Church”, w: The Apostolic Age in Patristic Thought, ed. A. Hilhorst, Leiden – Boston 2004, 194-203 (Crossref)

Devore D.J., Genre and Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History Toward a Focused Debate, w: Eusebius of Caesarea Tradition and Innovations, ed. A. Johnson – J. Schott, Washington 2013, s. 19-50

Dörrie H., Polybius über Pietas, Religio und Fides (Zu Buch 6, Kap. 56), w: Mélanges de philosophie, de littérature et d’histoire ancienne offerts à Pierre Boyancé, Rome 1974, 251-172

Eusebius, HE, ed. H. Pietras: Euzebiusz z Cezarei, Historia kościelna, tłum. A. Caba na podstawie tłum. A. Lisieckiego, ŹMT 70, Kraków 2013

Eusebius of Caesarea Tradition and Innovations, ed. A. Johnson – J. Schott, Washington 2013

Fears J.R., The Theology of Victory at Rome: Approaches and Problems, ANRW II 17, 2, Berlin – New York 1981 (Crossref)

Frank J.R., Eusebius of Caesarea, w: Historians of the Christian Tradition, ed. M. Bauman – M.I. Klauber, Nashville 1995, 59-78

Gagé J., La théologie de la victoire impériale, RevH 17 (1933) 1-44

Halsberghe G.H., The cult of Sol Invictus, Leiden 1972 (Crossref)

Heim F., La théologie de la victoire de Constantin à Théodose, Paris 1992 (Crossref)

Hollerich M.J., Eusebius of Caesarea’s Commentary on Isaiah: Christian Exegesis in the Age of Constantine, Oxford 1999 (Crossref)

Iricinschi E., God Hebrew, Bad Hebrew: Christians as Triton Genos in Eusebius’ Apologetic Writings, w: Reconsidering Eusebius. Collected Papers an Literary, Historical, and Theological Issues, ed. S. Inowlocki – C. Zamagni, Leiden – Boston 2011, s. 69-86 (Crossref)

Jaczynowska M., Religie świata rzymskiego, Warszawa 1987

Johnson A.P., Ancestors as Icons: The Lives of Hebrew Saints in Eusebius’ „Praeparatio Evangelica”, GRBS 44 (2004) 245-264

Johnson A.P., Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ „Praeparatio Evangelica”, Oxford 2006 (Crossref)

Johnson A.P., Eusebius, New York 2014 (Crossref)

Kneissl P., Die Siegestitulatur der römischen Kaiser. Untersuchungen zu den Siegerbeinamen des ersten und zweiten Jahrhunderts, Göttingen 1969

Kofsky A., Eusebius of Cesarea against paganism, Leiden – Boston 2002

Kolb F., Ideał późnoantycznego władcy. Ideologia i autoprezentacja, tłum. A. Gierlińska, Poznań 2008

Kotłowska A., Obraz dziejów w „Chronici Canones” Euzebiusza z Cezarei, Poznań 2009

Liebeschuetz W., The religious position of Livy’s History, JRS 57 (1967) 45-55 (Crossref)

J. Linderski, Roman religion in Livy, in: Livius: Aspekte seines Werkes, hrsg. W. Schuller, Constance 1993, 53-70

Marcus Tullius Cicero, De haruspicum responso, ed. N.H. Watts: Cicero, Orations: Pro Archia, Post Reditum in Senatu, Post Reditum ad Quirites, De Domo sua, De Haruspicum Responsis, Pro Plancio, XI, London 1923

Marcus Tullius Cicero, De natura deorum, ed. H. Rackham, London 1933

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Flacco, ed. C.F.W. Müller: M. Tulii Ciceronis Orationes: Pro Sulla; Pro A. Licinio Archia poeta; Pro L. Fracco, Lipsiae 1906

Mattingly H., Jovius and Herculius, HTR 45 (1952) fasc. 2, 131-134 (Crossref)

McCormick M., Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West, Cambridge 1990

Mendels D., The Media Revolution of Early Christianity. An Essay on Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, Cambridge 1999

Mendels D., The Sources of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius: The Case of Josephus, w: L’historiographie de l’Église des premiers siècles, dir. B. Pouderon – Y.-M. Duval, Préface de M. Quesnel, Théologie Historique 114, Paris 2001, s. 195-205

Morlet S., L’Introduction de l’Histoire ecclésiastique d’Eusèbe de Césarée (I, 2-4): étude génétique, littéraire et rhétorique, REAug 52 (2006) 57-94 (Crossref)

Norelli E., La mémoire des origines chrétiennes: Papias et Hégésippe chez Eusèbe, w: L’historiographie de l’Église des premiers siècles, dir. B. Pouderon – Y.-M. Duval, Préface de M. Quesnel, Théologie Historique 114, Paris 2001

Nuffelen P. van, Eusebius of Caesarea and the Concept of Paganism, w: The Archaeology of Late Antique „Paganism”, ed. L. Lava – M. Mulryan, Leiden 2011, 89-109 (Crossref)

Perrone L., Eusebius of Caesarea as a Christian Writer, w: Caesarea Maritima. A Retrospective after Two Millennia, ed. A. Raban – K.G. Holum, Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui 21, Leiden – New York – Köln 1996, 515-530

Prinzivalli E., Storia ed escatologia in Eusebio di Cesarea, „Bizantinistica” Serie II, 5 (2003) 97-112

Reconsidering Eusebius. Collected Papers an Literary, Historical, and Theological Issues, ed. S. Inowlocki – C. Zamagni, Leiden – Boston 2011

Sallustius, De coniuratione Catilinae, éd. A. Ernout – J. Hellegouarc’h, w: Salluste, La Conjuration de Catilina. La Guerre de Jugurtha. Fragments des Histoires, Paris 2003

Sirinelli J., Les vues historiques d’Eusèbe de Césarée durant la période prénicéenne, Dakar 1961

Tabbernee W., Eusebius’ Theology of Persecution: As Seen in the Various Editions of His Church History, JECS 5 (1997) 319-334 (Crossref)

Twomey V., Apostolikos Thronos. The Primacy of Rome as reflected in the „Church History” of Eusebius and the historico-apologetic writings of Saint Athanasius the Great, Münster 1982

Versne H.S., Triumphus: An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of the Roman Triumph, Leiden 1970

Wienand J., Der Kaiser als Sieger. Metamorphosen triumphler Herrschaft unter Constantin I, Berlin 2012 (Crossref)

Willing M., Eusebius von Cäsarea als Häreseograh, Berlin – New York 2008 (Crossref)


Published
2015-07-15


Bralewski, S. (2015). Boże zwycięstwo (ενθεοσ νικη) – „ideologia tryumfu” w "Historii kościelnej" Euzebiusza z Cezarei. Vox Patrum, 63, 331–351. https://doi.org/10.31743/vp.3567

Sławomir Bralewski 
Uniwersytet Łódzki



License

Papers published in Vox Patrum are covered by the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) licence. Authors and users can use published works licensed under the CC-BY-ND since 2018. For earlier publications, copyrights are available under fair use rights in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyrights and related rights.