Contents
The Praeparatio consists of fifteen books which have been completely preserved. Eusebius considered it an introduction to Christianity for pagans. But its value for many later readers is more because Eusebius added information from historians and philosophers which was not recorded elsewhere. Namely:
- Here alone is preserved a summary of the writings of the Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon, of which the accuracy has been shown by the mythological accounts found on the Ugaritic tables.
- Here alone is the account from Diodorus Siculus's sixth book of Euhemerus's wondrous voyage to the island of Panchaea where Euhemerus purports to have found his true history of the gods.
- Here almost alone are preserved writings of the Platonist philosopher Atticus along with much else.
- Here primarily are preserved important works of Porphyry, the Neoplatonist critic of Christianity (the On Images, Philosophy from Oracles, the Letter to Anebo, the Against the Christians, the Against Boethus, the Philological Lecture).
Read more about this topic: Praeparatio Evangelica
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Conversation ... is like the table of contents of a dull book.... All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayed in it. Listen to it for three minutes, and you ask yourself which is more striking, the emphasis of the speaker or his shocking ignorance.”
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“Yet to speak of the whole world as metaphor
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It is to stick to the nicer knowledge of
Belief, that what it believes in is not true.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)