Church History From Nero to Constantine. E-book. Formato PDF - 9780243708925

The modest aim of this book is to set forth for the benefit of the general reader facts already known to scholars concerning the life of the Church in the age of persecution.

The words facts and life are used advisedly. The book is written to interest the layman, and by the layman I mean not the unordained but the non-specialist. Now English people are not as a rule much interested in opinions. This is, perhaps, a pity, but it is so; they are as God made them. They are not, therefore, interested in theology, especially if by theology is meant, not the bare statements of the Creed, but the elaborate explanations of such statements extracted from theologians under the pressure of the questionings and denials of the heretic. But they are interested in the Church as a living and working society, and it is the history of the Church under this aspect that I have attempted to write. After all the Church has always been a way of life rather than a system of thought.