Constantinian shift

Constantinian shift is used by some

State and the Church that led to a kind of Caesaropapism. The claim that there ever was a Constantinian shift has been disputed; Peter Leithart argues that there was a "brief, ambiguous 'Constantinian moment' in the fourth century", but that there was "no permanent, epochal 'Constantinian shift'".^[3]

The Shift

Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312.^[4]^[5]^[6] The following year, 313, he issued the Edict of Milan with his eastern colleague, Licinius. The edict legalised Christianity alongside other religions in the Roman Empire

. In 325 the

State church of the Roman Empire). In 392 Theodosius passed legislation prohibiting all pagan cultic worship.^[7]

During the 4th century, however, there was no real unity between church and state: in the course of the

Aëtius

(fl. 350) also suffered exile.

Towards the end of the century, Bishop

Chrysostom, who as bishop of Constantinople

criticized the excesses of the royal court, was eventually banished (403) and died (407) while traveling to his place of exile.

Theological implications

Critics of state-aligned Christianity often point to the ascension of Constantine as the beginning of Caesaropapism: according to this critique, the official Christianity of the Roman state rapidly became a religious and metaphysical justification for the existence, exercise, and expansion of worldly political power, ultimately facilitating earthly Christian empire both for Rome and its successors across Christendom. Similar criticisms are levied by Christian anarchists, who claim that the Constantinian shift triggered the Great Apostasy by transforming the religion into a means for preserving the ruling elite's power and justifying violence.^[9]

Athanasius believed that violence was justified in weeding out heresies that could damn all future Christians.^[11] He felt that any means was justified in repressing Arian belief.^[12] In 385, Priscillian

, a bishop in Spain, was the first Christian to be executed for heresy, though the most prominent church leaders rejected this verdict.

Theologians critical of the Constantinian shift also see it as the point at which membership in the Christian church became associated with a social concept of citizenship, rather than reflecting one's internal decisions and feelings. American theologian Stanley Hauerwas notes the shift as forming part of the foundation for the contemporary American conception of Christianity, one that is closely associated with patriotism and civil religion.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ Clapp, Rodney (1996). A Peculiar People. InterVarsity Press. p. 23. What might be called the Constantinian shift began around the year 200 and took more than two hundred years to grow and unfold to full bloom.
^ e.g. in Yoder, John H. (1996). "Is There Such a Thing as Being Ready for Another Millennium?". In Miroslav Volf; Carmen Krieg; Thomas Kucharz (eds.). The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jurgen Moltmann. Eerdmanns. p. 65. The most impressive transitory change underlying our common experience, one that some thought was a permanent lunge forward in salvation history, was the so-called Constantinian shift.
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
, p 287.

^ Lactantius XLIV, 5

^ Eusebius XXVII–XXXII

^ Brown 2006, 60.

^ Theodosian Code, XVI.1.2

ISBN 978-1-60206516-1
. Retrieved 2012-12-16. 374[:] Gregory is exiled under Valens

Lexington Books
. pp. 149–168.
^ "The Donatists and Their Relation to Church and State « Biographia Evangelica". Archived from the original on 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2019-06-04.

^ Olson, 172

^ Barnes, 230.

Further reading

Timothy Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 1981

Theodosian Code,
Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church, (London: Oxford University Press, 1943), p. 31. see: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/theodcodeXVI.html Archived 2007-02-27 at the Wayback Machine

Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003),60.

James Bulloch, From Pilate to Constantine, 1981

Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine, Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd series (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1990), Vol I, 489–91. see: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conv-const.html

Alistair Kee, Constantine Versus Christ, 1982

Lactantius, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus, On the manner in which the persecutors died (English translation of De Mortibus Persecutorum) see: http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0296/_P18.HTM

Ramsay MacMullen, Christianising the Roman Empire, 1984

Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology, 1999

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Constantinian shift.

Social Constantinianism - an Evangelical perspective on the Constantinian shift

Basil's Struggle with Arianism after Constantine.

Timeline of Fourth-Century Roman Imperial Laws showing the Constantinian shift

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Constantinian_shift&oldid=1220423792"

[1] Clapp, Rodney (1996). A Peculiar People. InterVarsity Press. p. 23. What might be called the Constantinian shift began around the year 200 and took more than two hundred years to grow and unfold to full bloom.

[2] .g. in Yoder, John H. (1996). "Is There Such a Thing as Being Ready for Another Millennium?". In Miroslav Volf; Carmen Krieg; Thomas Kucharz (eds.). The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jurgen Moltmann. Eerdmanns. p. 65. The most impressive transitory change underlying our common experience, one that some thought was a permanent lunge forward in salvation history, was the so-called Constantinian shift.

[3] Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
, p 287.

[4] Lactantius XLIV, 5

[5] Eusebius XXVII–XXXII

[6] Brown 2006, 60.

[7] Theodosian Code, XVI.1.2

[8] ISBN 978-1-60206516-1
. Retrieved 2012-12-16. 374[:] Gregory is exiled under Valens

[CA-9] Lexington Books
. pp. 149–168.

[10] "The Donatists and Their Relation to Church and State « Biographia Evangelica". Archived from the original on 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2019-06-04.

[11] Olson, 172

[12] Barnes, 230.

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[9]

[11]

[12]

The Shift

Theological implications

See also

References

Further reading

External links