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    Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
    Unavailable
    Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
    Unavailable
    Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
    Ebook585 pages10 hours

    Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

    By Peter J. Leithart

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    We know that Constantine

    • issued the Edict of Milan in 313
    • outlawed paganism and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire
    • manipulated the Council of Nicea in 325
    • exercised absolute authority over the church, co-opting it for the aims of empire

    And if Constantine the emperor were not problem enough, we all know that Constantinianism has been very bad for the church. Or do we know these things? Peter Leithart weighs these claims and finds them wanting. And what's more, in focusing on these historical mirages we have failed to notice the true significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. For beneath the surface of this contested story there emerges a deeper narrative of the end of Roman sacrifice--a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire--and with far-reaching implications. In this probing and informative book Peter Leithart examines the real Constantine, weighs the charges against Constantinianism, and sets the terms for a new conversation about this pivotal emperor and the Christendom that emerged.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIVP Academic
    Release dateSep 7, 2010
    ISBN9780830868162
    Unavailable
    Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
    Author

    Peter J. Leithart

    Peter J. Leithart is a senior fellow at New Saint Andrews College, Moscow, Idaho, and a pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow. He is the author of several books, including Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture and Solomon Among the Postmoderns.

    Read more from Peter J. Leithart

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    • 4/5
      Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, has too long been a whipping boy of nearly anyone who needed a scapegoat to pin their misgivings about Christian history on -- from John Howard Yoder, to whose theories Leithart dedicates a good part of this book to refuting, to Dan Brown, with his godawful "Da Vinci Code," to the extreme conspiracy nuts like Acharya S and Peter Joseph, maker of "Zeitgeist, the Movie." Constantine has been the boogeyman of those with a historical bone to pick -- or who think they have such a bone to pick -- for a very long time. Ask the average person about Constantine and chances are you'll hear about a cynical politician who manipulated the Church to serve his own ends and fabricated the New Testament and the divinity of Christ. Finally, with this wonderful book, all of those myths, from the extreme left to the extreme right, have been laid to rest in one fell swoop. This book is a must-read in the study of Christian history.

      1 person found this helpful