Where do I go after those 5 books?

In my last post I talked about the five books where one needs to get started on studying church history.  Notice that I’m really focusing on primary sources?  All five books that I’ve mentioned are written in the first millennium so they can’t be warped by a modern bias.  Obviously if you want to learn about the Church of England and how it was founded, read Bede and not John Foxe.

However, once you’ve finished those five(which may take a while I admit) I have the next book in line.  It’s The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus.  He was a man who lived in Antioch and his tome covers the time period from 428 to 592 AD.  Why is this time period important?

First of all, don’t skip Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret because they stop at about this point.  Once you’re up to speed, start this work.  This work is really important because it covers an important time period.  It covers three ecumenical councils and gives a lot of details about the ecumenical councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon.  The second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD isn’t given much attention. Probably because like several ecumenical councils throughout Church history, it didn’t have as big an impact.

Another reason that it’s important is that it ends right before Islam begins.  Islam begins in 610 AD when Muhammad first claims to be a prophet at 40 years of age.  This document covers until 592 AD so Muhammad would have been 22 at the time.  It’s 30 years away from the founding of the Islamic State in Medina, 40 years away from the death of Muhammad, and 42 years away from the Islamic invasion of the Roman Empire.

Evagrius was from Antioch and died in 594 AD, shortly after finishing his Church history.  Let’s do some math here.  Antioch falls to the Muslims in 637 AD which is 43 years after Evagrius died.  It’s not unreasonable to think that there were people who personally knew Evagrius who witnessed the fall of the city to the new Muslim Empire.

One may claim that the 42 year gap between the end of the history and the Islamic invasion of the Roman Empire is a long time.  It’s true that 42 years is a long time.  Politiclaly things have changed because there was a quarter century long war with the Persians.  One could say that this was simply a continuation of the Roman-Persian wars of the sixth century.  Still, what can’t be denied is that 42 years is a short time in terms of theological climate.  The theological climate probably didn’t change much in this time as it seems to have been shelved during war times.  The Roman Empire is basically a theological war zone between the Chalcedonians and the monophysites.

Anyways, it covers a very important period.  Because of this, it is the right place to start once you’re done the five books recommended in the last post.  You could technically skip Bede but not the other four.  Happy reading and happy Canada Day!