The Church and the World in which the Church was Founded

History of the Church #1

by Philip Hughes

The temptation of the Church historian is to begin at the beginning and then go steadily on, the second century following the first and the third the second etc. It is a temptation that Msgr. Hughes has resisted. He has seen a better principle. The Church was born into the world, and the first phase of her history is in that world, the world that was already there. But gradually she remade that world and the second, quite different, phase of her history was in the world she had made. He divides the first two volumes accordingly. But this meant that he could not take one fixed date as the dividing line for the whole of the territory in which she worked, for the Eastern world remained very much as she found it up until the time of Justinian I, whereas the Western world had begun to respond to her re-creative activity by the time of Constantine.
The first volume, then treats of the Church in the West up to the conversion of Constantine (312) but in the East up to Justinian I or rather a century and a half beyond to allow for the consummation of the disunion that followed Chalcedon.

Genres: History, Catholic, Nonfiction, Religion, Church History

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Monsignor Philip Hughes (1895-1967) was a Roman Catholic priest and Catholic ecclesiastical historian. He taught post-graduate courses at the University of Notre Dame.

Reviews

[Sam U · Rating 5 out of 5]

A detailed treatment from a Catholic perspective of the early Church history from Our Lord’s days up till the 7th century in Volume 1 of this classic of Philip Hughes. Hughes explains the controversies and struggles among prominent theologians, between the Church and State (Byzantine Empire), Roman Primacy ( upheld by Eastern prelates and Councils even up till 7th century) and Caesaro-Papism (pushed by the Byzantine emperors, wittingly or unwittingly. Nevertheless, Hughes did not fail to point out that the various desperate attempts of the Emperors, with coercion and persecution, trying to secure the approvals from popes of their Christological heresies published in Constantinople is only another acknowledgment of the Roman Primacy in the early Church), whilst at the same time backing it up with lines from canons and acts of various Ecumenical Councils all pointing to the importance and esteem of the Pope held by the universal early Church.