A thought-provoking work that offers a commentary on the love and kindness of God as well as His fairness and anger. Lactantius dwells on these seemingly conflicting ideas and beautifully expresses that God is compassionate yet impartial in meting out justice. Profound!
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume VIII of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find a collection of ancient writings, including The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts of Theodotus, Two Epistles Concerning Virginity, the writings of Pseudo-Clement, the Apocryphal books of the New Testament, The Decretals, the memoirs of Edessa, and various fragments of writings from the second and third centuries. Many of the authors of these works are unknown, but the works themselves have been greatly influential."
"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume VII of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find the writings of Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius Urbanus, Victorinus, and Dionysius. This volume also contains writing unattributed to any author, but nonetheless considered of great value. These writings include: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, The Second Epistle of Clement, The Nicene Creed, and Early Liturgies. "