Cultural Christians Slow Read: Constantine made things better, right?
It's complicated--as Chapter 7 explains
We love heroes of the faith, and perhaps that’s why most Christians I talk to and who are not professional historians, really want to like Constantine. We have this idealized vision of him as the first Christian emperor (which he sort of was—but it’s complicated), and as someone who paved the way for Christianity to flourish in the Roman Empire (which, again, is sort of true, but it’s even more complicated).
Indeed, this is one question that I have been repeatedly asked: What difference did the conversion of Constantine make for cultural Christianity in the Roman Empire? The answer is: Cultural Christianity after Constantine looks different than it did before Constantine. Or, again, it’s complicated.
I suppose these kinds of answers are why normal people find historians frustrating. We also just complicate everything. Sorry/not sorry. We go to school for a long time to get this annoying. It’s a special skill.
To get back to Constantine, he plays an important role as a sort of accidental villain of Chapter 7. The focus of the chapter is the Donatist controversy, which divided churches in North Africa in the early fourth century. Worse, the controversy turned violent—in large part because of the emperor’s involvement.
The issues at hand were quite serious for all involved—the debate was over matters of salvation and purity of the church. And yet, at which point is violence of Christians against other Christians justified? This question troubled many leaders in the fourth century, including those who condemned the belligerent Donatists.
The question of disagreement in the church, and at which point maintaining peace in the Body of Christ is not the main priority is a historically difficult one. We continue to struggle with it today—as church splits show.
Ultimately, Chapter 7 is a chapter without heroes. The Donatists did not behave well during this controversy. Constantine did not act wisely, and only made things worse by interfering. And in the process, we see a picture of a new sort of cultural Christians emerge.
Reading Questions: Chapter 7
1. What is surprising or unusual about The Passion of Maximian and Isaac?
2. What is the main question on which the final three chapters of this book focus?   Â
3. What was the difference between the overall model of church governance before and after Constantine came to power?
4. What are some similarities and differences between the sectarian violence in the churches of Late Antique North Africa and the lynching violence in American communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
5. What are some productive ways to respond to the kind of violence among Christians that this chapter describes? Is this something that your church and/or community ever had to deal with, and if so, how did you handle it?
I laughed out loud at "We go to school for a long time to get this annoying. It’s a special skill." :D
Nadya, this is so fascinating for me to read. Growing up, I was taught that Constantine was a big reason for "everything that's wrong" with the church today. That his adoption of the faith merged church and state in a way that was detrimental, caused pagan priests to simply flip their clerical collars around to keep their jobs, and renamed a bunch of pagan holidays with Christian names. Not surprising, it meant that as a naive college student traveling abroad, I questioned all the historical sites in Israel Constantine's mom identified as Christian holy sites which made our secular Jewish Israeli tour guide give me a side eye: what kind of strange hole did you crawl out of? He'd never met a Christian who didn't put much stock in all the major Christian sites there.
As an adult, I've seen the error in this understanding of Constantine and have tried to come up with a more nuanced view of him. All that to say, I'm looking forward to reading this specific chapter in your book. :)