Cyprian of Carthage:
His Life & Impact
DETAILS: Series: The Early Church Fathers Publisher: Christian Focus Publications Publication Date: February 1, 2018 Format: Kindle Edition Length: 138 Read Date: July 24, 2022
The Series
In case you hadn’t read what I thought of the other book I’ve read in this series, let me start with the thumbnail description of the series I came up with:
I literally stumbled on to this series, The Early Church Fathers, a few weeks ago and thought it sounded like a great idea. It looked kind of like a mix of Crossway’s Theologians on the Christian Life and Oxford’s Very Short Introductions (incidentally, that’s what it ended up being).
What’s Cyprian of Carthage About?
Arnold has two aims for this short book: to introduce the third-century Father, Cyprian of Carthage, to his readers and to show that Cyprian has a use and significance for Christians today, especially as Arnold suggests that “Increasingly our world* looks more like Cyprian’s world.”
* Arnold seems to mean the Western world, perhaps, the United States, when he says “our world.”
Introducing Cyprian
Like the biography composed by Pontius, his contemporary, Arnold pretty much ignores Cyprian’s early years and starts with his conversion. It’s clear that he came from a prominent family, and seems to have held some noteworthy position in local government.
Soon after his conversion, he’s made bishop and it’s not long after that when he finds himself embroiled in controversies, some of which come out of the persecution of the Church. Arnold gives a quick overview of the nature of the controversies and Cyprian’s role and positions in each.
His Significance for Today
The latter part of the book focuses on “three areas where modern evangelicals would benefit by retrieving Cyprian: ecclesiology, virtue, and suffering and martyrdom.” Arnold sketches out each of these areas and points to how he thinks we could use the Father’s point of view.
So, what did I think about Cyprian of Carthage?
Because death and torture were always a possibility, Cyprian needed to make martyrdom appealing so that people would not drown in fear under the next wave of persecution.
The idea of making martyrdom appealing is pretty appalling to me. Sure, buttressing the faith of his people so they’d be able to stand fast during the next wave of persecution in the face of the possibility of martyrdom, is one thing. But making it appealing? Really?
Arnold also spends a lot of time discussing whether a certain period of history could be construed as a time of persecution—it’s an interesting question, and one probably worthy of debate with the scholar he’s focused on. But in a book of 138 pages, it’s not worth spending several paragraphs on the question.
I had a few other quibbles with his approach and some details of the writing. But it’s really not worth getting into.
This is a helpful volume, but it could’ve been better if Arnold had been a bit more focused on Cyprian and stayed out of extraneous areas. I do have a better appreciation for Cyprian, and I appreciate that. I just hoped for more.
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