Christianity full circle

After Constantine the Great converted his religious beliefs to those of the Christian faith, Rome began to accept and adopt some of the Christian practices. Rome had a culture that allowed them to take on the beliefs of others if it bettered the community as a whole. The morals and ethical practices of the Christian religion provided individual motivation toward order in the city. The Romans eagerly welcomed the ideas of individual purpose in life, and an afterlife of salvation and individual immortality. In terms of politics, Romans used the Christian name to establish trade connections with other Christians and eventually Christianity became the only legal religion in Rome. Also, the ability to publicly promote the religion allowed for interaction with many different cultures and provided a larger sense of community among many different peoples.

An interesting connection can be made between the assimilation of Christianity into Roman society and the extraction of it in America society today. The Romans used Christianity to grow not only socially, but also politically. Today, Americans are in a constant state of protest against the founding principles of Christianity in the government. Many Americans want the word "God" to be taken out of the pledge of allegiance, and many more are calling for the removal of Christian influence in the courts. The way in which the Romans were willing to accept beliefs of different religions and adopt them into their community, is exactly opposite to the practices of the United States in regards to religion. The U.S. is trying very hard to rid itself of religion in government all together. Instead of including all the different religions in some way into the practices of the whole community to create a state of acceptance; Americans are discluding every religion in the hopes that everyone will be equal in their position of no voice religiously.

My Take on the First Council of Nicaea

In 325 CE the Emperor Constantine convened a council of Christian religious leaders to resolve many issues and conflicts in the Church. Topics ranged from jurisdiction of the clergy to basic, core beliefs of Christianity. The main reason for the Council was to settle the controversy over the nature of the Trinity. "It was the decision of the council, formalized in the Nicene Creed, that God the Father and God the Son were consubstantial and coeternal and that the Arian belief in a Christ created by and thus inferior to the Father was heretical"1.

The First Council of Nicaea is most famous for the formation of the Nicene Creed, which states the basic beliefs of Christians.

As a Christian I find it very interesting and perplexing that many of my core beliefs were decided by an Ancient Roman Emperor who only converted to Christianity after seeing a Christian symbol in his dream the night before a victorious battle. How well did Constantine understand all of Christianity? How do us Christians know he made good decisions about our religion? And how do we know if Constantine changed basic Christianity beliefs during this council to make them more "Roman?" These are questions many Christians ask themselves after learning of the First Council of Nicaea. But do we really need to freak out over this?

The decisions made at the Council, however, were not made by Constantine alone. Nobody knows for sure who presided over the Council, although it can be assumed that Constantine played a major role in the decision-making process because he was the Emperor and he did call the council after all. Many other high-ranking Clergy members were present at the council so it is safe to say that Constantine did not make any horribly irrational decisions or any major changes that were not agreed to by other high-ranking Church leaders.

So to all my fellow Christians I say no, we do not need to freak out over the original Council of Nicaea. Yes, Constantine was most likely in charge but he was not the only one making decisions- many clergy members were also involved. So do not worry about your beliefs being all wrong because a former Roman Emperor played a role in deciding them. The fact is that at the time a Council was completely necessary to organize the Church and pave the way for it to become as large and as influential as it is today.

1: http://www.thenazareneway.com/council_of_nicaea_nicea_325.htm

I have a Dream...

Like Martin Luther King Jr., Constantine the Great also had a dream that affected history. His dream occurred on October 28th 312 C.E., the night before his memorable battle against Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. The roman letters of Chi and Rho appeared next to the words "in this you shall conquer." In his vision be believed that Christ was protector and would lead him and his army into victory. Constantine would put the symbol seen in his dream on the shields of his army to help protect them during battle. With the victory over Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian bridge, Constantine turned his religious beliefs towards Christiane and away from the worship of Greek and Roman Gods.




The coin above was commonly used after the victory at Milvian Bridge. The image on the front of the coin is Constantine and the image on the back depicts the image he seen in his dream known as Labarum. Without Constantine's dream the spread of Christianity would not have been as significant as it was and still is today.

Information found from:
http://forumancientcoins.com/Articles/Constantine_Ch_Rho_files/Constantine_Ch_Rho.htm

Nation of Churches

We have had many discussions in the last couple of weeks about the initiation of Christianity to the Roman state and the influence from Constantine the Great. The Roman state adopted Christianity as the states major religion during the 4th century AD. The Emperor Constantine was convinced that the Christian god had promoted him in his rise to power and was determined to ensure on-going divine protection for his empire. To ensure that the interest of Church and State were closely related, a major symbolic relationship defined the Byzantine Empire.


The Orthodox church emerged receiving numerous legal and financial dispensations which made it a key player in the Byzantine Empire. The Church was then able to regard Constantine as God's chosen representative on earth who guide his people according to the divine will instead of being regarded as a God himself. As the Byzantines debated the nature of Christ, the Council of Nicaea and Ecumenical Church Councils were created to convene any matters of religious controversy.

The Church of Byzantium played a major role in the development in religious traditions that then spread throughout the Middle East. Below is a list of fourteen Churchs that followed the Byzantine Liturgy with their own variations and history.
1. Albanian Church 8. Italo-Albanian Church
2. Bulgarian Church 9. Melkite Church
3. Byelorussian Church 10.Romanian Church
4. Croatian Church 11. Russian Church
5. Georgian Church 12. Ruthenian Church
6. Greek Church 13. Slovakian Church
7. Hungarian Church 14. Ukrainian Church

These Churches created a trend and domino effect that has given us such a diversity of Religions across the world.

For more information:
http://byzantium.seashell.net.nz/
http://www.faswebdesign.com/ecpa/byzantine/overview.html

Constantine the Great's impact on the Roman Empire

The Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) was the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and Constantinople(Byzantium) became its capital. Diocletian created a new form of an "administrative" system because the Roman state became too big. There was an over-extension. Diocletian decided to divide Rome into two empires, an East Empire and a West Empire. The two empires then had sub-divisions. In the sub-divisions, Diocletian assigned for each of the states or cities to have two emperors and two ceasars. However, the Roman Empire gets invaded by the Huns and the Western Empire collapses. With this decline, comes a new ruler, Constantine the Great. He becomes emperor of the Eastern Empire and and Constantinople becomes the capital. The most significant culture feature of this empire (Byzantine) was the rise of Christianity. Constantine becomes a main supporter of this religion because of a vision he had. In his vision he saw a religious symbol (Labarum) and it told him to conquer. He had this "dream" before the battle of Milvian Bridge. At this battle Constantine and his army won. This was coincidence enough to convert him to Christianity. Constantine wanted to spread his wisdom to others so he offered grants and gifts in a form of persuasion. After much of this "preaching" Christianity becomes the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. Constantine started to build monestaries to improve the expansion of the religion. Eventually, Christianity becomes "Romanized". An example of this romanization would be the structure and look of Catholic churches we see today. Christianity became so popular and so expanded, that anyone who was not part of it was considered barbarian. The Byzantine Empire and Rome were forever changed by this religion. This empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe. It can be said, "Constantine converts to Christianity and Christianity converts to Rome."