Kirsten Mackerras: Judgments Present and Future: Providence, Theodicy, and the End of Persecution in Lactantius

The doctrine of providence is central for Lactantius. His Divinae Institutiones use it to construct a consensus with his interlocutors, and to counter the allegation that Christians threaten the pax deorum. However, this emphasis on providence invites the riposte that the Christian God fails to protect presently-persecuted Christians. This paper explores Lactantius' responses to that challenge, and maps how his expectation of divine judgment and vindication develops across his career. Specifically, it asks how the sudden vindication of Christianity under Constantine affected that expectation. Lactantius' theodicy in the Divinae Institutiones centres around eschatological judgment and the pedogogical necessity of enduring evil to develop virtue. By contrast, de Mortibus Persecutorum celebrates the overthrow of the persecuting emperors, claiming that God's judgment has been realised in present history. Furthermore, one scholar has claimed that these theodicies are contradictory; if enduring evil teaches virtue then Lactantius should prefer persecution to its removal. This paper will argue that, despite different emphases in Lactantius' works, his theology of divine judgment within history is largely consistent. A possibility raised in the Divinae Institutiones is realised in de Mortibus Persecutorum. Lactantius repeats several of the Divinae Institutiones' theodicean motifs in the post-persecution work de Ira Dei, without modifying their eschatological orientation, and shows his belief that sufficient vice remains for one to learn virtue by resisting it. Yet in the various nuances of Lactantius' explications of providence, we may see the impact the end of persecution had on early Christian life and thought.