The ‘Servant of God’: Divine Favour and Instrumentality under Constantine, 318–25

This article focuses on the doctrine of divine favour and instrumentality as viewed from the emperor's own perspective, in relation to the early development of the ‘Arian controversy’ as far as the Council of Nicaea. While modern writers have focused on explicit statements by Constantine to sug...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pottenger, Andrew J. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2018
In: Studies in church history
Year: 2018, Volume: 54, Pages: 31-45
Further subjects:B Constantine
B divine favour
B Christian emperor
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:This article focuses on the doctrine of divine favour and instrumentality as viewed from the emperor's own perspective, in relation to the early development of the ‘Arian controversy’ as far as the Council of Nicaea. While modern writers have focused on explicit statements by Constantine to suggest that unity was the emperor's highest priority, this article reveals a pattern by which he sought to manage divine favour and argues that doing so effectively was of primary importance to him. Such a shift in understanding the emperor's priorities adds to the range of explanations for his later apparent inconsistencies as the actual achievement of unity continually eluded him.
ISSN:2059-0644
Contains:Enthalten in: Studies in church history
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/stc.2017.3