Revisions are the worst. One thing I hate doing is going over work I’ve already done. But if it weren’t for revisions we’d be putting out crap into the world. One of the revisions I had to make focused on what we often get wrong about Constantine.
Josh Hopping who writes over at Wild Goose Chase pointed out to me how I kept saying Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. And this is totally false. I know this is not the case. We went over this in seminary but popular ideas are hard to kill.
Whenever you read a book you get the idea that if it wasn’t for Constantine Christianity would be pure and undiluted from formality, politics, legalism, and anything else that plagues us today. The truth is Constantine gets a bad rap.
The good things Constantine did
Constantine did not make Christianity the official religion. Constantine was a promoter of religious tolerance. He issued the Edict of Milan which gave Christians and others the right to worship freely. Contrary to what many have accused him of he did not make Christianity the state religion. He made freedom of religion the state religion.
Christians would no longer be persecuted for their beliefs. And Constantine also went above and beyond as an advocate for Christians. Through his rule, Christians would also have their property returned and would be permitted to build houses of worship.
So Constantine was an advocate for religious tolerance and also an advocate for justice as he promoted the welfare of Christianity. That’s hero stuff to me.
The mystery behind Constantine
So why do we always hear that Constantine made Christianity the official religion? Well, Constantine did favor Christianity and he gave prominent political offices to Christians. During the reign of Constantine, the marriage between church and state was in its dating stage. There was nothing officially on the books but it was the beginning of the relationship we would see later on.
There’s also always been a question of Constantine’s conversion. One of the reasons people think Christianity was made the official religion is that Constantine would be the first Christian emperor. However, this is highly contested since many historians believe he only accepted Christ on his deathbed and refused to be baptized.
Constantine also convened the Council of Nicea. This is the government meddling in the affairs of the church. But still, it doesn’t make Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. For all practical purposes, Constantine convened the council because he wanted to put an end to church debates and have peace within his empire and within the one religion he took a liking to.
So who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire?
Well that honor should go to Theodosius I or Theodosius the Great. Theodosius was not a fan of religious tolerance. He banned the Olympic games because of their pagan origins. He also stopped worship at Roman temples. He allowed no other worship except Christian worship within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Because of Theodosius the Roman empire became “Christian”. He blended the church with the state and the impact of his decisions is still being felt right now. So instead of a post-Constantinian church we should change it to post post-Theodosian.
And so that’s what we get wrong about Constantine and why he’s my hero. Not necessarily because he was a great theologian. Not because he made the Roman empire Christian (which he didn’t). No. Constantine is my new hero because he was an advocate for religious tolerance and pluralism.
God can work in all kinds of environments but the environment that most supports the “whosoever will” nature of the gospel is an environment where people are free to choose who they will serve and Constantine made that available for all within the empire.