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It is not easy for researchers to find information about the life of Eusebius (240-338 or 340A.D.) who is called “the father of church history,” because he himself concealed his own personality in all his books as if on purpose. Therefore, there are some arguments about him as a historian. Negatively, the first group, which historian Gibbon belongs to, criticizes the place of Eusebius in the understanding of history and concludes that he was just a theologian who flattered Constantine and grasped for the highest political authority. Positively, the second group, which Lightfoot belongs to, who wrote a biography of Eusebius, very brillantly admits that the historical records by Eusebius have objective truths and can be received as real observations of historical facts. Also, Lightfoot observes that Eusebius tried to develop the historical starting point and procedures of Christian history as a certain eyewitness. In the middle line of judgement of Eusebius there are a lot of scholars, such as Everett Ferguson, Michael Bauman and Martin I. Klauber. These scholars are choosing positive or negative understandings case by case through study. But this third direction has to acknowledge that Eusebius' endeavour to write history is correct, taking the clean evidence of the persecution and victory of Christianity. In such various directions for understanding Eusebius' history, we can come to some conclusions on his attitude to describe history. First, he was a very wise historian to start the view of history that the “Lord is victorious,” and he delivered this understanding to St. Augustine in the next generation. According to St. Augustine, the providence of God in history rules over every situation. Also in this direction, Eusebius helped him dynamically. Second, Eusebius explains the people who appear in his historical events very concretely without any doubt, although he doesn't reveal himself well. For example, comparing the meaning of history between Constantine and Jesus Christ, he made a specific and logical explanation that Constantine is a symbolic figure of Jesus Christ. In other words, Constantine is reckoned a kind of clear appearance of logos, Third, his viewpoint of eschatology stands upon the realized eschatology direction according to the above claim. Fourth, his endeavour shows in history the identification of Christianity. He saw the continuity between the Old Testament and New Testament against Gnostic thought introducing the teaching of salvation history. Finally, when he was going to write the personal history of Constantine, he didn't go in a routine and naive direction to obey his authority with blind loyalty. Standing on the teaching of the Alexandrian school, he described that the philosophy of Christianity is superior to Hellenistic political philosophy, because the teaching of Chritianity based on the incarnation in which God is revealing Himself and the teaching of the Bible is deeper than Platonic philosophy including the philosophy of Neo-platonism in the results of God's inspiration. It is just the position of Eusebius. Therefore, positive interpretation of Eusebius is more important to understand the history of early Christianity.
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Eusebius, Augustinus, Logos, Political Theology, Origenes
