The status of Christianity within the Roman Empire changed dramatically under the rule of Constantine. While historians continue to debate the true nature of Constantine’s own conversion, it is clear that after his decisive victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312, he wielded his vastly increased political power in favour of the Church. Although Constantine did not establish Christianity officially as the imperial religion, he funded and enfranchised it so generously that by 380 AD, his successor Theodosius saw fit to declare it the official religion, and, ironically, to persecute those who did not conform to its creeds and canons. From this point on, the close intertwining of church and state which later became known as ‘Christendom’ would dominate the socio-political landscape of Europe, and beyond. In various forms, this Christendom model would last for a millennium and a half. We are still living with its consequences, and its legacy is now intensely debated - not least by evangelicals.[1]
[1] Among those critical of the legacy see Alistair Kee, Constantine Versus Christ: The Triumph of Ideology (London: SCM Press, 1982); Nigel Goring Wright, The Radical Evangelical (London: SPCK, 1996), 103-119; Disavowing Constantine (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2000); Alan Kreider (ed.), The Origins of Christendom in the West (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2001); John Howard Yoder, The Christian Witness to the State (Newton, Kansas: Faith and Life Press, 1964), The Politics of Jesus: Behold the Man! Our Victorious Lamb (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/Carlisle: Paternoster, 1972); James Wm. McLendon Jr., Systematic Theology: Ethics (Nashville: Abingdon, 1986); Stuart Murray, Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2004). Among those more favourably disposed to it, see Paul Avis, Church, State and Establishment (London: SPCK, 2001); Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge: CUP, 1996); Wesley Carr, ‘Crown and People: Reflections on the Spiritual Dimensions of Establishment’, Lecture given at Westminster Abbey, 16 September 2002. Text available online at http://www.westminster-abbey.org/event/lecture/archives/020917_jubilee.htm.
