Document Type

Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1017/S0009640726102984

Journal Title

Church History

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

This article argues that scandal functions as a key narrative technology in late ancient Christian historiography. Rather than treating scandal as anecdote or moral failure, ecclesiastical historians use it as a structured way of arranging deviant bodies, contested practices, and moments of exposure to produce claims about Christian truth. Through recurring controversies, this study traces how biblical stories are reworked by authors such as Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret to stabilize doctrine, police boundaries, and articulate Christian identity. Across these writers, scandal emerges as a method of historical control, not merely a record of past conflict but a means of containing theological ambiguity and disciplining memory. By foregrounding scandal as a historiographical strategy, this article exposes how Christian histories were crafted through narrative forms that made orthodoxy appear inevitable and deviation unmistakable.

Comments

The definitive article is available on the journal's website at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640726102984. 

Publisher Statement

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.

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