November 06, 2008
In the Beginning, Man Created God, Part XI
Previously on "YHWH's Excellent Adventure"
Part 1: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In which we learn that YHWH wasn't the first god to want to be alone.
Part 2: YHWH rules, Chemosh drools! In which we learn most of Biblical history was pulled out of King Josiah's backside.
Part 3: By the Rivers of Babylon. In which the Hebrews crib most of their afterlife from the Persians.
Part 4: Alex the Kid in Hellenic World. In which Alexander the Great conquers the known world and everyone learns to love, Greek-style.
Interlude: Danny Boy, the Lions, the Lions are calling. In which Daniel becomes a Prophet despite not knowing the first things about his own surroundings.
Part 5: I ♥ MACCABEES. In which the flame of cosmopolitan Hellenism is snuffed out by religious fundamentalists.
Part 6: Quacks, Kooks and Loons of the Roman Empire. In which we see that the early Roman Empire was a utopia for two bit religious frauds and crazy cults.
Part 7: Would the real Messiah Please Stand Up? - In which we began to example just how much we really know about Jesus.
Part 8: The Greatest Story Ever Made Up - In which we see as the four gospels progressively transform Jesus from Jewish messiah and adopted son of god into the ever-co-eternal Logos and saviour of mankind
Part 9: Speaking in Tongues - In which early Christianity is finally torn from its Jewish roots, and gentiles steer the religion to a far different future than its founders intended.
Up next...
Part 10: I, Constantine
Emperor Constantine the Great, or, to be more accurate, Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, casts a long shadow over early Christianity, but his influence is often misjudged or exaggerated, especially by the ignorant, stupid, or those afflicted by both deficiencies.
Above: Exhibit A
People like Brown tend to assume that because Constantine wanted to promote orthodoxy in religious practice, this also meant he was pushing a particular form of theology. This is bollocks. Constantine really didn't care about the finer details of Christology - that was for the church to decide. Constantine just wanted unity. He certainly wasn't what we would consider a paragon of Christian morality - he had his son and wife both killed on a whim, but in truth he was no better or worse a person than most powerful men of that era.
In truth, Constantine had probably been exposed to Christianity early - his mother, Helena, was a convert, and the environment at Nicomedia, where Constantine spent his formative years, was cosmopolitan, with Christians and Pagans intermixing without incident.
According to Christian scholars of a later era, however, Constantine's "conversion" occurred during the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where he allegedly received a vision where the Christian God gave him a sign that told him "in this sign, conquer". He did so, having his soldiers paint the "Chi-ro", or labarum, on their shields and call on Christ's favour to beat their enemies. Constantine won a smashing victory and is alleged to have given the credit to the Christian God.
There's one slight problem with this story - on none of the Constantine's memorials to the battle is the Christian God ever mentioned - nor is there any sign of a cross, labarum or solitary little icthys symbol.
It is a little suspicious, to say the least, pointing to embellishment by later Christian writers.
For eight years after his victory, the coins of the Empire still bore the symbols of pagan gods, particularly Sol Invictus, or "the Unconquerable Sun". It's arguable that much of the sun god's cult became subsumed into post-Constantine Christianity, and it is certainly tempting to draw parallels between the god's solar aura and the halos of Christian saints, but the truth is that sun imagery is fairly popular, and Christians were using it as far back as when they were lurking in Rome's catacombs.
Above: Is that you Jesus?
He did past the Edict of Toleration - legalizing Christianity, but not institutionalizing it. Pagans and Christians would now rise in the empire together, but power of the new religion was fast eclipsing the old. Constantinople, the new capital, would contain no pagan places of worship. The die was cast.
We now come to what's become one of the most "famous" things people know about Constantine, or at least, think they know. The Council of Nicaea, where, called to a convocation by Constantine, various Christian bigwigs came together in order to establish consensus. Like usual talk-fests, the compromise that resulted from this meeting was unwieldy, messy, and didn't please anyone, but it was a start. On the other hand, there was no "book burnings" or "making Jesus divine" nonsense that Dan Brown fans will try and tell you. Firstly, there were no bibles of any sort to burn, and secondly Jesus had been divine in most strands of Christianity since the Bar Kochba Revolt.
Despite what you also may have heard, Constantine played little role in the debates other than presiding. He attended, but did not vote on any of the proposals. And, despite the fact that the main finding of the council was to condemn Arianism, when Constantine chose to be baptized (as most Christians of the era did, he did so as an adult), it was Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian himself. The Emperor died shortly after.
In a final note, Constantine had one last influence on the Western world, through the so-called "Donation of Constantine" a document purporting to be from the Emperor that effectively ceded control of the Western Roman Empire to the Bishop of Rome, Sylvester, after curing him of a particularly nasty disease.
Above: No way would this guy cede half his empire to a priest named after a cartoon cat...
As can be expected, the Medieval Popes used the Donation to great advantage, but others fingered it as a medieval forgery early on, notably Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, and effectively, Constantine's "true" successor in the West.
Up Next: Part 11: You say homoousios, I say Homoiousios.
Posted by Quentin George at November 6, 2008 04:38 PM