Purifying Our Political Theology—Second Thoughts on the Received Wisdom Behind “Constantinianism”
This is a book with an edge. Its author, by no means a provocateur per definitionem, is necessarily provocative, and this for the simple reason that he is challenging a fundamental assumption about the early church that has achieved widespread currency. Whether among popular writers (e.g., Dan Brown...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2014
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| In: |
A journal of church and state
Year: 2014, Volume: 56, Issue: 1, Pages: 189-206 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This is a book with an edge. Its author, by no means a provocateur per definitionem, is necessarily provocative, and this for the simple reason that he is challenging a fundamental assumption about the early church that has achieved widespread currency. Whether among popular writers (e.g., Dan Brown), historians (e.g., Ramsay MacMullen and James Carroll), or theologians (e.g., John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas), the name of Constantine is associated with “tyranny, anti-Semitism, hypocrisy, apostasy and heresy”; it represents, at best, “a hardened power-politician who never really became a Christian” yet “who harnessed the energy of the church for his own political ends” and, at worst, a “brute,” a “murderer,” a “usurper,” alas, an “evil genius” (pp. 9, 92, 177). |
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| ISSN: | 2040-4867 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: A journal of church and state
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jcs/cst138 |