Search results
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus, signo Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325), was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, [1] and a tutor to his son Crispus.
The idea that humankind was formed in God’s own image has clear scriptural parallels, but the more important resonance here is that God placed (proposuit) both good and evil before humans. According to Lactantius, it is because God endowed humans alone with wisdom (sapientia), itself the one trait that most links humans to their creator, that ...
Lactantius was a Christian apologist and one of the most reprinted of the Latin Church Fathers, whose Divinae institutiones (“Divine Precepts”), a classically styled philosophical refutation of early-4th-century anti-Christian tracts, was the first systematic Latin account of the Christian attitude.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
There, in 303 the author faced the beginning of the Diocletianic persecution. The injustice he believed was being done to the Christians is of utmost importance for Lactantius. In order to become the champion of the oppressed, he resolved to defend and explain the Christian faith.
2 days ago · Lactantius ( 250– 325) (c.250–c.325), Christian apologist. Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius was a teacher of rhetoric at Nicomedia. He is generally thought to have been a convert to Christianity. He was tutor to Constantine's son Crispus.
In pursuing his goal, the union of true religion and true wisdom, possible only in Christianity, he makes little use of Scripture but relies on pagan prophets, such as the sibylline oracles and Hermes Trismegistus. His quotations of Scripture depend largely on Cyprian's Testimonia.
Whereas Tertullian had argued for freedom of religion as a civic right, Lactantius now argues that all human beings have a God-given right, by virtue of possessing the imago Dei, to worship God (or the gods) according to their will.
