Ecclesiastical History (Catholicism)
Ecclesiastical history, for the Roman Catholic Church, is the history of the Roman Catholic Church as an institution, written from a particular perspective. There is a traditional approach to such historiography. The generally-identified starting point is Eusebius of Caesarea, and his Church History.
Since there is no assumption that contemporary historians of the Catholic Church who are also Catholics adopt this perspective, this “traditional approach” is a chapter of historiography, not yet closed, but applying to a definite area that is not central to the academic history of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Read more about Ecclesiastical History (Catholicism): Approach, Traditional Catholic View, Sources, Auxiliary Sciences, Historians
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)