Comments on: Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse: Constantine and the Great Transformation

By: Fr. Johannes Jacobse

Fr. Johannes Jacobse — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:57:27 +0000

Actually, try Adolf Harnack, the "father" (so to speak) of the history of Christian Dogma. The notion that the Church fell in the fourth century first gained wide currency with him. Yoder, et. al., developed this thesis into a workable ideology.

By: PO'F

PO'F — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:57:52 +0000

AFAIK Constantine is not venerated as a Saint in the Western Church, and I don’t know that he ever was, at least in any significant or lasting way … nevermind calling him Great or Equal to the Apostles.* Maybe mad at him for moving to Byzantion?! I’d be surprised if he’s ever been formally condemned or anything by the West … probably just failure to take up devotion to him, though the West does venerate St. Helen. In all my years as a Mennonite / Anabaptist / Quaker / Christian-pacifist scholar — the 1990s — I never encountered consciousness that he IS actually venerated in the East … just the apparently widespread sense among Protestants in general since the Reformation — and not just among pacifists — that Christianity experienced a qualitative “fall” in becoming the Empire of the Romans’ official religion, which they usually inaccurately attribute to him rather than to Emperor St. Theodosius I (also the Great). It seemed non-pacifist Protestants saw this fall not just in that respect — giving peace witness their usual mere lip-service — but in general observance of morals and ideals, “charisma,” Church operations / structures / governance (Dan Brown’s inaccuracies are just the latest version), even worship (intimate, ‘meaningful’ house-church, to en masse, ornate basilica liturgies). The feeling is centuries older than Yoder and Hauerwas and even any recent “politically correct” kudos for pacifism. In any case, I’d be surprised if a marginal “sectarian” like Yoder has single-handedly wielded so much influence on 4th century studies even just since his rise around the 1960s … nevermind retroactively. Try Martin Luther and co., even the Late Medieval Western “sectarian” movements that in many ways laid the groundwork for them.

–Leo Peter O’Filon, M.A.

(*–And they complain about some Orthodox’ lukewarmth — or less — for Augustine of Hippo?!)

PS: I don’t belive it’s necessary to join the debate about an o/Orthodox approach to “the necessity of violence,” to take my position.

By: Eliot Ryan

Eliot Ryan — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:48:10 +0000

The triumph of Christianity not only freed Christians from the spiritual stimulus of persecution, but it opened the door of the Christian home to worldly habits and luxury which were hitherto unknown, and which made the practice of the higher ideals of the spirit difficult, if not impossible, in the ordinary surroundings of the family life. To use the expression of Walter Hilton, the baptism of Constantine “brought so many fish into Peter’s net that it was well-nigh rent by the very multitude.” Henceforth it became necessary for Christians, who would satisfy the deeply seated instinct of human nature for the higher life, to seek it mostly in the solitudes of the desert, or later within the sheltering walls of the monastery. THE MONASTIC LIFE

The institution of Christian monasticism began in the deserts in 4th century Egypt as a kind of living martyrdom. Some scholars attribute the rise of monasticism at this time to the changes in Roman society that had been brought about subsequent to the Emperor St. Constantine’s conversion and the legal tolerance of Christianity in the Roman Empire. This ended the position of Christians as a small, persecuted group, leading to the rise of nominal Christianity within the Church. In response, many who wished to maintain the intensity of the earliest years of Christian life fled to the desert to fast and pray, free from the fragmenting influence of the world. The end of persecution also meant that martyrdom was no longer as common, and so asceticism as a form of living martyrdom came to be pursued. http://orthodoxwiki.org/Monasticism

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:02:19 +0000

In the East, there were more christians in the upper class in Constantine day but in the west in Rome a lot of the great families were still pagan, so becoming a christian was not to Constantine’s political advantage.

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:55:50 +0000

Good Point. As historian Paul Johnson stated Constantine was a complex person. I don’t believe that christians are required to be pacifists, however, I believe that anabapists and others use referances to early saints like Martin of Tours that refuse to fight in a battle. Constantine is criticized by modern critics for putting to death his 2nd wife and son which might have been caused by a charged of the son attempting to committed adultery with her. As stated before delayed bapistisim was common in the 4th century, even Augustine and Ambrose was bapistized as adults.

By: Fr. Johannes Jacobse

Fr. Johannes Jacobse — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:32:36 +0000

The power of Leithart’s book (and Hart’s “Atheist Delusions”) is that they describe how Christianity won the culture first. Politics, particularly the lifting of the persecutions, was possible only because of this initial witness. This is a dimension, given our modern emphasis on politics, that often gets overlooked.

By: George Patsourakos

George Patsourakos — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:13:19 +0000

I believe that Emperor Constantine the Great has had a greater impact on the flourishing and worldwide acceptance of Christianity than any other individual. Indeed, Emperor Constantine’s acceptance of Christianity in the fourth century was an extremely critical turning point for Christianity, because it permitted Christianity to prevail over paganism that pervaded the world at that time.