A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

MacMullen, Voting about God in Early Church Councils, Chapter Five, ‘The
Violent Element’, for his thoughts about the high level of religious violence in
these years.
15 An excellent introduction to Athanasius is to be found in David Brakke,
‘Athanasius’ in Philip Esler, Volume Two, pp.1102—27. The quotation comes
from p.1120. Richard Hanson notes, on p.422 of The Search for the Christian
Doctrine of God, that Athanasius ‘is no favourer of Greek philosophy’ and
decries it in his work Contra Gentes. He preferred to root his theology
specifically in the scriptures, although he was also a somewhat obsessive
defender of homoousios, even though the word is unscriptural.
16 As David Potter puts it: ‘As Athanasius’ extensive discourse on his woes
dominates the later historiographic traditions of the church, it is now very hard to
see the history of the period in any way but his.’ It is only recently that scholars
have begun to recover the many tangled strands that made up the thinking of
both Nicene and subordinationist groups. Potter, p.420. The quotation from
Athanasius comes from his Against the Arians, discourse II, para. 58.
17 Quoted in Pelikan, Christianity and Classical Culture, p.175. For Gregory of
Nazianzus’ life, see McGluckin.
18 Online translation can be accessed at www.earlychristianwritings.com/fathers
19 McGluckin, p.57.
20 Quoted in Ayres, p.205.
21 It is discussed in ibid., Chapter Fourteen.
22 See McGrath, Christian Theology, p.331.
23 Ammianus Marcellinus, op.cit., Book 30:9.
24 Sozomen, History of the Church, VI:7:2. An English translation is to be
found in the Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian
Church, second series, Oxford and New York, 1891.
25 A good summary of the relationships of Valentinian and Valens with the
churches can be found in Errington, Roman Imperial Policy from Julian to
Theodosius, Chapter VII.
26 MacMullen, Voting About God in Early Church Councils, p.32.