Get Bart Ehrman's course, "Did Jesus Call Himself God?": https://www.bartehrman.com/godmanSee all of Bart Ehrman's courses: https://www.bartehrman.com/alexTo...
lol fair point. I may be wrong, but I that is pretty much on par for an ancient emperor.
I think most of the time politicians going to politic so it’s about whatever is most politically expedient. Since he choose to be baptized by an Arian after Nicea (and there were other councils where arians were in the majority), I think my main point it demonstrates that the most politically beneficial choice for him was to side with the Arian party and it also shows that Nicea wasn’t the death knell that is taught by traditional Christians.
I’m happy to read more of you have a link or any recommendations.
It’s unusual for a Roman emperor to be considered a god before death. Caligula tried that and it was a disaster. But even Constantine was deified after his death, despite his conversion.
As for the sincerity of Constantine’s conversion, the previous generation of scholars, people like Aldofi, MacMullen, and Barnes, tended to take it pretty seriously. Hal Drake in 2002 (relatively recent in terms of ancient scholarship) thought Constantine took a much more politic view of Christianity and indeed was making political choices rather than choices of religious conviction. His student Digeser, who was my diss advisor, has her own book coming out in which she argues that Constantine is coopting Christian rhetoric as well as the power structure of the Church to secure his own policies and positions. But I don’t know when that book will be published.
Constantine was… theologically confused though. He couldn’t really distinguish between Sol Invictus, Jesus, Apollo, and himself.
lol fair point. I may be wrong, but I that is pretty much on par for an ancient emperor.
I think most of the time politicians going to politic so it’s about whatever is most politically expedient. Since he choose to be baptized by an Arian after Nicea (and there were other councils where arians were in the majority), I think my main point it demonstrates that the most politically beneficial choice for him was to side with the Arian party and it also shows that Nicea wasn’t the death knell that is taught by traditional Christians.
I’m happy to read more of you have a link or any recommendations.
It’s unusual for a Roman emperor to be considered a god before death. Caligula tried that and it was a disaster. But even Constantine was deified after his death, despite his conversion.
As for the sincerity of Constantine’s conversion, the previous generation of scholars, people like Aldofi, MacMullen, and Barnes, tended to take it pretty seriously. Hal Drake in 2002 (relatively recent in terms of ancient scholarship) thought Constantine took a much more politic view of Christianity and indeed was making political choices rather than choices of religious conviction. His student Digeser, who was my diss advisor, has her own book coming out in which she argues that Constantine is coopting Christian rhetoric as well as the power structure of the Church to secure his own policies and positions. But I don’t know when that book will be published.