Rome and Christianity: Reinvention of History in Christian Apologetics of the Second and Third Centuries AD
Lebedev Pavel N.
The paper presents a study of rethinking the history of relations between Christianity and Roman Empire by Christian apologists of the 2nd–3rd centuries. Authors of this period tell fictive stories about pro-Christian actions of various Roman emperors. Sometimes we can find positive interpretations of the real acts of Roman authorities or see Roman history organically incorporated into the world’s history (in a Christian context, so the existence of the Roman empire acquires providential and eschatological purpose). Apologetic literature displays more positive attitude towards Roman state than it had been the case in the apostolic age. There was an opportunity and need for constructing a new model of the history of relationship between the State and the Church. The process of “Christianizing history” in the apologetic literature of the 2nd–3rd centuries could be interpreted as a way of creating cultural memory of the Christian community and establishing the group identity within the setting of the Roman world.
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