Could Christianity have benefited without Constantine - Research Paper Example

?Introduction In preliminary readings, there seem to be two extreme views of Emperor Constantine who ruled the Roman Empire between 306 and 337. One school of thought asserts that Constantine was the founder of Christendom and his laws and actions laid the foundation for the institution of Christianity in the Roman Empire and throughout Europe. Another set of thinkers present Constantine as an opportunist who used Christianity to further his personal political goal of unifying and ruling the Roman Empire. In either contexts, it can be argued that Constantine played a fundamental role in the promotion of Christianity. This paper examines whether Christianity could have persisted without Constantine or not. According to Professor Stark, in the year AD40, Christians were very few and some estimates put the entire membership of the religion at around 1,0001. It was like any other religious sect and any other group in the Roman empire. However, Christianity grew at a very outstanding rate of 3.42% per annum and 40% per decade around AD2502. This suggests that Christianity was already growing when Constantine took over the reign of the Roman Empire in AD 306. In light of this fact, this research will proceed on the premise that Christianity would have survived and grown even without the pro-Christian policies of Constantine. The research will test this hypothesis to ascertain its truthfulness or falsity. Persecutions Before Constantine Constantine was serving in the court of Diocletian who ruled Rome from 285 – 305 AD3. As the Caesar, Diocletian was strongly influenced by the Roman society which at that time, was purely animist in nature4. Diocletian was an idol worshiper like most Romans of his era. He performed sacrifices to Roman gods and consulted soothsayers. Basically, Christians in that era were against these practices and they condemned Roman leaders who were into such practices. Due to this, Diocletian was naturally an enemy to the Christian Church and the Christians continued to criticize his pagan practices. Constantine, a young member of his court observed these tensions from an independent perspective. The criticisms merited action from the high office of the Caesar and Diocletian acted by persecuting the early Christian Church. From the eyes of Diocletian and other Romans of his generation, Christianity was a foreign religion that had its roots in Ancient Israel, then known to the Romans as Palestine. Due to this, the Romans could not take the criticisms in good faith and make adjustments to their beliefs. Rather, Diocletian and his government felt compelled to take action against the Christian critics of the Roman pagan religious system. Diocletian and his government launched the Great Persecution which was the last and the most severe Roman persecution of the Early Christians5. In the national context, Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire in Diocletian's era. This was the official position and most people in the Roman Empire saw it as a secret society and looked at the members with a high degree of skepticism and suspicion6. Christianity was neither Roman nor Barbarian; it was just some kind of foreign religion that posed a threat to the Roman culture7. More significantly, Christianity in the time of Diocletian was expanding. This created an urgent need to control the expansion of Christianity. On February 23, 303, Diocletian destroyed the Church in Nicomeda and burnt scriptures and confiscated the Church's assets and treasures8. This sent a clear message that Diocletian was against the expansion and growth of the Christian Church. He was obviously not ready to tolerate the Christian Church as a competitor to traditional Roman customs and practices. On the same day, Diocletian issued an edict against Christians which prohibited Christian worship in the Roman Empire9. Three more edicts were issued by Diocletian and these were meant to ban the practice of Christianity and prevent Christians from carrying out their activities, which he thought were detrimental to the Empire and against the Roman customs and systems. This made Christianity slip into obscurity and become a secret religion. Practitioners had to carry out their activities in an isolated manner to prevent persecution and reprisals. It is therefore evident that Christianity was still thriving even when the Roman Empire was at its worst. This shows that the legalization of the religion by future Roman governments could not be credited for the expansion and growth of Christianity. This is because in the presence of the worst persecution, Christianity continued to thrive behind the scenes. Expansion of Christianity Aside the endurance of Christianity in hard times, things did not just end there. Christianity went on to expand and grow at unprecedented rates and speed. Christianity expanded from its number of just about 1,000 in AD40 to a significant percentage of the Roman population in the third century10. This shows that there were some inherent factors that were contributing to the growth of Christianity other than the policy of the government of the Empire. According to Professor Stark, Christianity continued to expand because of several reasons. One of the most important factors that led to the conversion of Roman pagans to Christianity was the role of women. The women in the Early Church held a high status in the various churches. The women outnumbered men and they were very successful in areas relating to convincing their children and spouses to join Christianity. This is because women are the makers of homes. These women wielded a profound control of the next generation. Due to this, there were many conversions within family units that can be credited to Christian women. Another avenue through which more Roman pagans converted to Christianity was marriage. Many Christian women married Roman men who were either idol worshipers or had no religion. The women convinced their spouses-to-be to become Christians. Through this, many Romans and Greeks who were under the Roman Emperor's sphere of control converted to Christianity even though the religion was technically illegal in the Empire. Christianity also survived these tough times and rough periods through the endurance and extraordinary efforts of the main martyrs of the religion11. This is because some members of the Christian community were extremely strong and steadfast. Although some Christians were killed and others went through very tough and restricted lifestyles, they continued to work hard to pray and undertake Christian activities. In some cases, this was done secretly and in others, Christians bravely challenged authority and carried out their activities12 Due to this, the defacto conversions continued and more people became Christians. Additionally, the Early Christians endured tough conditions like remaining in cities that were stricken by plagues and having the faith that a supernatural intervention could occur that would make them thrive13. Through these actions, the Early Christians gained power and authority both in the formal sense and informal sense. This is because they made a lot of effort to build their interests and increase their position in the places they lived. They also performed events that were seen by many non-believers to be supernatural. This caused them to gain the sympathy of these non-Christians who also converted to Christianity. Due to this, Christianity grew faster than any other religion. This led to the exponential increase of the numbers of Christians in the time of Diocletian where Christianity increased at a rate of 40% per decade. This was unprecedented and clearly, the persecutions were not working well enough to control and contain the growth of Christianity. In light of this fact, it is therefore not very accurate to say that the growth of Christianity can be credited to anyone who ruled the empire and canceled the hostile anti-Christian laws. This is because the religion was already thriving and growing even when the Diocletian regime was using the toughest and the most serious methods to contain the growth of Christianity. Constantine, living in the court of Diocletian saw that the persecution of Christians was not working. And since he was not blinded by the hatred and fury that defined Diocletian's decisions, he could analyze things objectively without the emotional sentiments that controlled Diocletian. Thus, it can be argued that he had a mindset that was more neutral and in support of the best results for the Empire, rather than the entrenched position that characterized Diocletian's reign. Secondly, Constantine himself came under the influence of the growing network of secret Christians. This is because his own mother, Helena was a Christian and due to that, Constantine was connected to Christianity whilst his boss, Emperor Diocletian was killing Christians. Thus, it could be said that it was inevitable for Constantine to have a positive position towards Christianity. This refutes the assertion that Christianity would have been destroyed by any harsh decisions by any Roman Emperor. The inherent strengths of Christianity caused it to grow under all conditions imaginable. Political Benefits of Christianity to the Empire “Rather than cause the triumph of Christianity, the Emperor Constantine's “Edict of Milan” was an astute response to rapid Christian growth that had already made them a major political force”14. This asserts that Constantine saw Christianity as a political avenue through which he could consolidate his power and control over the Empire. This is because prior to his conversion, he had a desire and love for political and social power. With Christianity growing at a fast pace of 40% per decade, Christians were a major political component of the Empire. So Constantine had to embrace the Church and become a kind of religious dictator whose authority would be derived from both a political and a religious point of view. This is because I Samuel 8:6 – 9 provides room for the divine authority of the king. Due to that, Constantine could see an avenue for taking over power and being viewed by his Christian subjects as the absolute ruler. Constantine therefore moved to make Christianity a state religion to consolidate his power amongst the citizens of the Roman Empire. “In popular culture (Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code), among best selling historians and among theologians... his [Constantine's] name is identified with tyranny, anti-semitism, hypocrisy, apostasy and heresy. He was a hardened power-politican who never really became Christian, a hypocrite who harnessed the energy of the Church for his own political ends, a murderer, a usurper and an egoist”15. This description indicates that it is impossible to argue that Constantine sought to genuinely expand the Church for the purposes of promoting Christianity. This is because Constantine was not a very genuine full-hearted Christian. He did not believe in the doctrines of the Church and had so many practices that were contrary to the principles of Christianity. Clearly, Constantine was not helping the Christian Church. He was pursuing his own interest of controlling the Empire and having a strong grip over affairs. Also, it is apparent that the use of religion and other symbols like the cross could unify the Roman Empire in order to create a hierarchy that could help the Empire to maintain an army that would support tyranny and holy wars. This also means that Christianity was not the main end for Constantine's actions. Rather, the end was to unify the Roman Empire under his strong and firm grips. From the religious and spiritual angle, Christianity in the Roman Empire was growing as a religious entity. This was done by the ordinary Roman Christians who went out and converted ordinary people even at the peril of their lives. And if Constantine had not recognized Christianity as a state religion, Christians would have risen up against him and they would have broken away from the Empire. Even, the wording of the Edict of Milan shows that Constantine was seeking to consolidate power. The Milan Edict stated that “Amongst our other negotiation for the permanent advantage of the common weal, we have hitherto studied to reduce all things to a conformity with ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans”16. This bears testimony to the fact that the Edict of Milan, which officially abolished the persecution of Christians was issued to create a permanent system of promoting the Pax Romana. This was the best way of keeping the empire united and under a single rule of Constantine. The Milan Edict went further than just banning persecutions against Christians. It recognized the Church as a corpus in a juristic sense and allowed the Ecclesia to be incorporated into the legal order of Rome through the council of Nicea17. This means that the Church became a major political constituent in the Roman Empire. And Constantine just decided to recognize them by making Christianity the state religion. Other scholars provide practical reasons why a person like Constantine supported the institutionalization of the Church. These reasons serve political purposes and provide an explanation of why the Church was an institution that was growing and would have overshadowed Constantine if he had continued to persecute them18. First of all, the Roman frontiers were fractured by barbarians who sought to cross the Rhine and Danube to conquer Roman territory. Due to this, there was the need for something to be done to promote peace and unity in the Roman Empire. Otherwise, these barbarians could come in and destroy the Roman civilization. Thus, for the continuous survival of the Roman Empire to be attained, there was the need for Constantine to unite, rather than divide the Empire. This is because taking an adversarial position against the Romans Christians would have caused division that could have led to a Roman civil war. This would open up the opportunity for the barbarians to enter and destroy what was remaining of the empire. Thus, Constantine acted to unify the Empire and even expand further to cover the barbarians and others in northern Europe. Secondly, most colonies of the Roman Empire by AD300 had gained a high degree of autonomy and self sufficiency. These areas were no more reliant on Rome as they did two or three centuries earlier. This meant that the colonies could easily start uprisings and this would surely destabilize the Empire. Constantine therefore saw an opportunity to unify the Empire through a single state religion that would keep everyone together. Through this, the colonies could see Constantine as a divinely appointed king and Christianity could support a hierarchical system that would unite Christians and enable them to fight wars against non-Christians like Muslims. Thirdly, there were various forms of climate change that affected vegetation and agriculture. This meant that people who were threatened by vegetation loss could cause military action that could lead to all out war in the Empire. This was a situation that could be presented if all members of the Roman Empire were of the same religion. This influenced Constantine to accept Christianity as a constituent part of the Empire. Also, the fact that there were fewer slaves and epidemics were rife meant that there was the need for some social and religious system that controlled the situation. Christianity was a good solution to this situation. This is because it provided various reasons why slaves must be freed and explain the cause of epidemics and attribute such things to sins and punishment. In other words, Christianity provided the kind of escapism that could maintain social order and provide commoners with universal explanations to their problems. All in all, it is evident that Christianity was growing and the strength of the religion was one that no one could object. Constantine on the other hand was a power hungry politician who sought to hold on to the reigns of power. Due to this, he saw the continuous persecution of Christians to be wrong and not in his best interest. This made Constantine accept Christianity and institute it in order to become a religious dictator who was seen as an imperial king with divine authority. This led to his recognition of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Without Constantine's measures, Christianity would have expanded anyway. Endurance of Constantine's Actions It is apparent that Constantine's actions were designed and calculated to attract Christians and enable them to become loyal subjects of the Roman Empire. Clearly, the arrangements of Constantine institutionalized the Church and led to Christendom. In other words, the inclusion of Christianity into the legal systems of the Roman Empire provided an avenue for the institutionalization of the Church and the integration of Christian beliefs into the European social system. Constantine provided the Church with land and rights and this led to some degree of recognition and fairness to Christians19 The Edict of Milan and the Council of Nicea allowed the Church to take charge of the moral wing of the Roman Empire and later, the entire Europe. This is because the Roman Empire was steeped in ancient practices which included the worship of gods and other practices that were dividing the empire rather than uniting the people. The establishment of the Church created a unified and standardized procedure for the application of the principles of Christianity across board on the continent. Also, the inclusion of the clergy in national matters led to some humane practices that helped the continent to progress20. This include the abolishing of slavery and crucifixion. Also, there were legal reforms that were influenced by Christianity which promoted fairness and development. Additionally, the actions of Constantine led to the suppression of other religions. This paved way for the growth of Christianity and the institutionalization of Christianity. Also, Constantine is mentioned as the one who set precedence for the Emperor to take full responsibility for the Church21. This was replicated throughout Europe and kings became responsible for employing and paying bishops. This persisted for over 1,000 years and was first challenged overtly during the French Revolution of late 1700s. Conclusion Originally, Christianity was seen as a foreign religion in the Roman Empire. Diocletian and other Caesars persecuted Christians and Christianity was practiced as a secret religion throughout the Empire. However, inherent circumstances caused Christianity to grow. The role of women, intermarriages and evangelistic activities caused Christianity to thrive even when it was declared illegal under Diocletian. This shows that Christianity was meant to expand and grow in the Roman Empire. It is conclusive that Christianity would have thrived in the Roman Empire even if Constantine had not come in with his reforms and cooperative propositions to Christianity. It is identified in this research that Constantine instituted Christianity in the Roman Empire to safeguard his own personal interests and unify the army for religious wars. This was meant to promote unity and consolidate Constantine's political and ruling ambitions. The paper discovers that in spite of the fact that Christianity would have thrived anyway, Constantine's liberal reforms and recognition of Christianity provided essential support to the growth and expansion of Christianity. This was attained through the institution of Christianity, suppression of other religions and the state support for Christianity in the Roman Empire and Europe. Bibliography Balch, David and Osiek, Carolyn. Early Christian Factions in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialog (New York: WMB Eerdmans Publishing, 2003) Frend, William. “Persecutions: Genesis and Legacy” Cambridge History of Christianity: Origins of Constantine p503 – 523 Gaddis, Michael. There is no Crime for Those who have Christ: Religious Violence in Christian Roman Empire (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005). Gibbon Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New York: Harcourt and Co, 1960) Gonzalez, John. Story of Christianity Vol 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (New York: HarperCollins, 2010). Hopkins, Keith. “Christian Numbers and Their Complications” Journal of Early Christian Studies 6:2 (1998) pp185 – 226 Jeffrey, Richard. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476 – 752 (London: Routledge, 1979) Leihart, Peter. Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom (New York: InterVarsity Press, 2010). Miles, Margaret. The World Made Flesh: History of Christian Thought (London: Blackwell Publishing, 2004) Odahl, Charles. Constantine & The European Church (London: Routledge, 2004) Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996) Walsh, Michael. The Triumph of the Meek: Why Early Christianity Succeeded (New York: Harper and Row, 1986) Read More