The Eusebians

A historical and theological re-evaluation of the polemical writings of Athanasius of Alexandria (bishop 328-73) who would become known to later Christian generations as a saint and a champion of orthodoxy and as the defender of the original Nicene Creed of 325 against the `Arian heresy''. For much of his own lifetime however Athanasius was an extremely controversial figure and his writings although highly influential on modern interpretations of the fourth-century Church and the so-called `Arian Controversy'' display bias and distortion. David M. Gwynn examines Athanasius'' polemic in detail and in particular his construction of those he condemns as `Arian'' as a single `heretical party'' ''the Eusebians''. Gwynn argues that Athanasius'' image of the Church polarized between his own `orthodoxy'' and the `Arianism'' of the `Eusebians'' is a polemical construct which has seriously impaired our knowledge of the development of Christianity in the crucial period in which the Later Roman Empire became ever increasingly a Christian empire.