In the focus of the author’s attention is the question of interpretation by church historians of the 4th - 7th centuries of the key category, around which the whole system of their notions of the world, society and history was organized, the category of «church». The ambiguity of the semantic content and some variants of the interpretation of this concept are shown. The question is posed about how the authors of the 4th - 7th centuries saw the genre of «church history». Categorical analysis allows us to conclude that all church historians of the late antiquity viewed the Church not so much as a hierarchy or a system of church institutions, but rather as a community of Christians and a repository of true faith. Such a specific understanding of the Church entails a fundamentally different approach to the exposition of its history. The idea of providentialism, Christian universalism, a single chronological system for describing the world historical process and many other features developed within the framework of the Christian model of historiography become a hallmark of late-antiquity ecclesiastical historiography and lead the way to later ideas about the standards of scientific historical work.
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