Apologies for my short absence. I've been busy with work, it being the end of the financial year and all, and not much spare time to write down the thoughts clattering around my head. Anyway, in between other things I've been gradually working my way through Eusebius' History of the Church. Eusebius has been called the "father of church history" and this work, which first appeared early in the 4th century, is the earliest surviving attempt at a comprehensive account of the first three centuries of Christianity. I say "attempt" because the work is hardly comprehensive. In the first place, it is almost entirely a history of the Greek-speaking church of the Eastern mediterranean, with occasional insertions of events from the West, especially Rome. Yet for me this was the least puzzling thing about it. As a 21st century reader it is easy to see what it lacks as a work of history. For a start there is no real sense of development. We know that
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson