Constantine and the Conversion of Europe

Fülszöveg

The key idea of this series, and what distinguish.es it from any other that has appeared, is the intention by way of a biography of a great man or woman to open up a significant historical theme. This book telis of one of the most momentous events in the making of modern Europe-the adoption of Christianity by the Román Empire. The Emperor Constantine, the author of this revolution, is an enigmatic figure: since Gibbon's day historians have disputed whether he was actuated by policy or by religious conviction. But whatever his motives, the results of his conversion were momentous. Christianity, hitherto the belief of a small persecuted sect, became the official religion of the Román Empire, and thus an integrál part of European civilization. Constantine's conversion raised a problem which has troubled Christendom ever since, the confiict of Church and State. Following the tradition of the pagan empire, Constantine regarded it as his imperial duty to preserve for the Román State the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The key idea of this series, and what distinguish.es it from any other that has appeared, is the intention by way of a biography of a great man or woman to open up a significant historical theme. This book telis of one of the most momentous events in the making of modern Europe-the adoption of Christianity by the Román Empire. The Emperor Constantine, the author of this revolution, is an enigmatic figure: since Gibbon's day historians have disputed whether he was actuated by policy or by religious conviction. But whatever his motives, the results of his conversion were momentous. Christianity, hitherto the belief of a small persecuted sect, became the official religion of the Román Empire, and thus an integrál part of European civilization. Constantine's conversion raised a problem which has troubled Christendom ever since, the confiict of Church and State. Following the tradition of the pagan empire, Constantine regarded it as his imperial duty to preserve for the Román State the favour of the Highest Divinity whose worship he had adopted. Accordingly, when he found the unity of the Church troubled by the Arian controversy, he took decisive action to heal the breach, summoning the first ecumenical council of the Church of Nicaea and enforcing its decrees. He thus laid the foundations of Caesaropapism, a doctrine against which the Church has struggled ever since with varying success. Professor A. H. M. Jones F.B.A., formerly Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford holds the chair of Ancient History at London University. He has written, amongst other works, The Herods öf Judaea and The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian. Vissza