Would Christianity have succeeded without Constantine

[patrick457]

Would it have competed with all the other emerging forms of Christianity whose texts were burned after the formation of the Bible?

Burned? In a number of cases it’s more like ‘stopped copying’ and/or ‘abandoned to oblivion in some heap somewhere’.

 

[patrick457]

One would have expected stronger resistance from the church to rising from pauper to prince. Surely Jesus would have had problems with making Christianity a state religion. “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting,”

It’s “not from this world.” Ouk estin ek tou kosmou tovtou. In other words, Jesus’ kingdom is not the sort of kingdom as earthly kingdoms are, which establish their authority by violence, injustice and fabricating facts out of the ground. That doesn’t mean that His kingdom is something totally nebulous and otherworldly with no connection whatsoever to this world, as the traditional rendering - ‘of’ in this case being just the archaic synonym for ‘from’ - can be and are misread today. For John, the kingdom is God’s gift to the world with Jesus as its courier, but the world was not ready for it yet as evidenced by “the world’s” rejection of Jesus. (I have N.T. (Tom) Wright to thank for pointing that out )

 

[oldcatholicguy]

Would Christianity have caught on and developed as a world religion if Constantine hadn’t converted and had such an influence? Or can we just say it was Gods plan?

Given the steady spread of Christianity despite persecution and that said persecution was not increasing I’d say yes.

 

[patrick457]

Given the steady spread of Christianity despite persecution and that said persecution was not increasing I’d say yes.

Persecutions of Christians in the first century of its existence were mostly local, desultory affairs; the first documentable Empire-wide persecution took place under Maximinus Thrax (235-8), though even then, only the clergy were targeted. It was not until Decius (249-51) during the mid-century that a persecution of Christian laity across the Empire took place. The decades immediately preceding Constantine (late 3rd-early 4th century) saw the persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius, which were the largest and most severe of them all.

 

[Justin_Swanton]

Persecutions of Christians in the first century of its existence were mostly local, desultory affairs; the first documentable Empire-wide persecution took place under Maximinus Thrax (235-8), though even then, only the clergy were targeted. It was not until Decius (249-51) during the mid-century that a persecution of Christian laity across the Empire took place. The decades immediately preceding Constantine (late 3rd-early 4th century) saw the persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius, which were the largest and most severe of them all.

And which failed. The driving force behind the persecution, Galerius, eventually gave it up as a bad job. I think it inevitable that Christianity (= Catholicism ;-)) would have converted the Empire eventually and that, if not Constantine, then another emperor would have realised where his best support base was.

 

[patrick457]

And which failed. The driving force behind the persecution, Galerius, eventually gave it up as a bad job. I think it inevitable that Christianity (= Catholicism ;-)) would have converted the Empire eventually and that, if not Constantine, then another emperor would have realised where his best support base was.

Also, Constantine wasn’t the first to attempt to decriminalize Christianity. Gallienus (260-8) granted toleration for Christians to practice their religion, thereby revoking his father Valerian’s (253-60) decree requiring clergy to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods under pain of exile or (later) death, but this itself was reversed after Gallienus died. Galerius in the eastern half of the Empire did put a halt to the persecution, but one of his successors, Licinius’ rival Maximinus reinstated it. Interestingly enough, when Licinius himself became a dangerous rival to Constantine, he began to to be portrayed as a pagan supporter and an enemy of Christians, giving Constantine a sort of pretext/excuse to fight against him. Licinius was co-author of the Edict of Milan, and his wife, Constantine’s sister, was a Christian: Eusebius of Caesarea, however, claims that this was just for show and that he really discriminated against them.