The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine

There is little for me to add to the fine reviews previously written here about Eusebius' "The History of the Church." By all means, take the time to read these reviews as they provide excellent tips on how to approach this genuine Christian classic.Although I have been a Church history buff for over 30 years, I had never read Eusebius until recently. Now I would suggest that this volume (whichever translation you prefer) should be required reading for all thinking Christians. However, it would help to have read some other books on early Church history before approaching this one. One of my favorites is "Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy," by Alexander Schmemann.I read Eusebius over a period of several months which caused me to ask various questions of the early Church along the way. Here are some things worth looking for:1. What did the early Church look like? What did they believe and practice and how did they worship?2. What role did heresy (or should I say "fighting heresy?") play in determining what was orthodox belief and what was not?3. Would I be willing to suffer the same kind of persecution as did these early confessors and martyrs? How can I not be filled with lifelong gratitude for what they endured so that the Christian faith could survive and thrive?4. What was the Church's relationship with the governing authorities? How did this change when Constantine came to power and issued the Edict of Milan (the full text is included in this book) which freed Christians from persecution?5. Does the Church I attend, and the faith I believe, at all resemble what is represented on these pages?By all means, read this book! Perhaps you'll agree that it should be required reading.

This book is a great addition to any library. Paul Maier translates Eusebius' works into very understandable English with unobtrusive, yet insightful, comments. The book is well organized. You can read by section or by book pretty easily. The book itself is quite marvelous. Eusebius gives us a history of what happened in the church after the writing of the New Testament up to the conferences of his day. It is from Eusebius that we gain a lot of understanding of Christian thought from that time. Eusebius did have a few factual errors in his works, but that's OK given that they did not have a library system like we have or the internet...

For those few brave souls today interested enough in theology and textual criticism to appreciate what a new and modern translation of "Church History" would add to their ability to understand the history of the Church, this is the only book out there. Dr. Maier follows up his classic translation of Josephus with a modern translation of Eusebius. His most important contribution to Eusebian studies is his decision to cut out the repetitiveness in the original work and translate Eusebius' train of thought instead of merely translating all of the asides and rhetorical flowerings of the nearly impossable-to-read and vast Church history. Each chapter of Eusebius is summarized and critiqued by Dr. Maier in an attempt to help the reader recognize both the value and the critical diffuculties in the original work. This kept me in the text and allowed me to skip certain sections that I wasn't interested in. (I challenge anybody to read the entire volume word for word, I made it through almost 8 chapters before starting to skip whole sections) The content of Eusebius is gripping at time, especially his vivid descriptions of the martyrdom of the early Church and his eyewitness biographical details of Origen and other early church fathers who he knew and studied under. Without Eusebius we would know almost nothing of the march of Christianity across the Roman empire and even less about the crucial critical history of the New Testament in the first 3 centuries. Dr. Maier has opened up access to this invaluable source both to lowly theologians like myself, and to the leading scholars of the day. I pray that Dr. Maier will continue to translate other ancient authors who up until this day are only available in translations so old that there are no publishing dates on the title pages!