Free Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart Page A
Authors: Peter J. Leithart
Tags: Non-Fiction
Drake, "Suggestions of Date in Constantine's `Oration to the Saints,'" AmericanJournal of Philology 106, no. 3 (1985): 335; Timothy Barnes "The Emperor Constantine's Good Friday Sermon," Journal of Theological Studies 27 (1976): 414-23; M. J. Edwards, "The Arian Heresy and the Oration to the Saints," Vigiliae Christianae 49, no. 4 (1995); Edwards, Constantine and Christendom, pp. xvii-xxix; Bruno Bleckmann, "Ein Kaiser als Prediger: Zur Datierung der Konstantinischen `Rede an die Versammlung der Heiligen,' " Hermes 125 (1997). Barnes, "Constantine After Seventeen Hundred Years," claims that the "Oration" is today "universally accepted." Edwards, Constantine and Christendom, provides a lucid, heavily footnoted translation.
81The phrase is John Milbank's, but it expresses, I think, Constantine's point.
"Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to FourthCentury Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), argues that the fourth-century debates were debates about different notions of divine generation.
83Eusebius Life 4.10.
84The evidence is explored in Oliver Nicholson, "Constantine's Vision of the Cross," Vigiliae Christianae 54, no. 3 (2000).
85Van Dam, Roman Revolution, p. 285, links the interest in Palestine with Constantine's selfimage and his inclination toward Arianism.
881bid., p. 308.
"Ibid., p. 307.
"Ibid., pp. 307-8.
"Baynes, Constantine the Great, attends to Constantine's own writings and draws a similar conclusion, though he sets aside the "Oration to the Saints" because he doubts its authenticity.
90Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, p. 275.
'Lactantius Death 34.
'Stephen Mitchell, "Maximinus and the Christians in A.D. 312: A New Latin Inscription," The JournalofRoman Studies 78 (1988): 113-14.
3David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge History of the Ancient World (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 365.
'Oliver Nicholson, "The `Pagan Churches' of Maximinus Daia andJulian the Apostate,"Journal ofEcclesiasticalHistory 45, no. 1 (1945): 4. Daia's reforms of the priesthood and his efforts to revive paganism are often compared to the later pagan revival of Julian, who drew his plans for reform from the church. Nicholson makes a compelling case against this interpretation, arguing that Daia's priests, though sincere in their paganism and their desire to eliminate Christianity, were political appointees who had little in common with Christian or Julianic priesthood.
6Mitchell, "Maximinus," p. 117; he cites Eusebius Church History 9.9.4.
5Potter, Roman Empire at Bay, pp. 364-65.
'In what follows I am particularly indebted to Timothy D. Barnes, "Constantine After Seventeen Hundred Years: The Cambridge Companion, the New York Exhibition and a Recent Biography," International, journal ofthe Classical Tradition 14 (2008). Simon Corcoran, The Empire of the Tetrarchs: Imperial Pronouncements and Government, AD 284-324, rev. ed., Oxford Classical Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 189, also notes that the "edict" is not in fact an edict.
'Barnes, "Constantine After Seventeen Hundred Years."
9Lactantius Death 48. Eusebius's version is in Church History 10.5.
10Hermann Dorries, Constantine and Religious Liberty, trans. Roland Bainton (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1960), p. 23. On the "edict" of Milan, Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture: APost-Christendom Perspective (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006), is a bundle of contradictions. He faults Constantine for establishing religious freedom without any explicit acknowledgment of the truth of Christianity (p. 80) but then complains that Constantine set the trajectory for the persecution of non-Christians and heretics (p. 96). He suggests that Constantine might have used his power "to promote religious liberty and increase respect for human life and dignity" (p. 96), but he has already told us that the edict accomplished the first. It is not at all clear what Carter
81The phrase is John Milbank's, but it expresses, I think, Constantine's point.
"Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to FourthCentury Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), argues that the fourth-century debates were debates about different notions of divine generation.
83Eusebius Life 4.10.
84The evidence is explored in Oliver Nicholson, "Constantine's Vision of the Cross," Vigiliae Christianae 54, no. 3 (2000).
85Van Dam, Roman Revolution, p. 285, links the interest in Palestine with Constantine's selfimage and his inclination toward Arianism.
881bid., p. 308.
"Ibid., p. 307.
"Ibid., pp. 307-8.
"Baynes, Constantine the Great, attends to Constantine's own writings and draws a similar conclusion, though he sets aside the "Oration to the Saints" because he doubts its authenticity.
90Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, p. 275.
'Lactantius Death 34.
'Stephen Mitchell, "Maximinus and the Christians in A.D. 312: A New Latin Inscription," The JournalofRoman Studies 78 (1988): 113-14.
3David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge History of the Ancient World (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 365.
'Oliver Nicholson, "The `Pagan Churches' of Maximinus Daia andJulian the Apostate,"Journal ofEcclesiasticalHistory 45, no. 1 (1945): 4. Daia's reforms of the priesthood and his efforts to revive paganism are often compared to the later pagan revival of Julian, who drew his plans for reform from the church. Nicholson makes a compelling case against this interpretation, arguing that Daia's priests, though sincere in their paganism and their desire to eliminate Christianity, were political appointees who had little in common with Christian or Julianic priesthood.
6Mitchell, "Maximinus," p. 117; he cites Eusebius Church History 9.9.4.
5Potter, Roman Empire at Bay, pp. 364-65.
'In what follows I am particularly indebted to Timothy D. Barnes, "Constantine After Seventeen Hundred Years: The Cambridge Companion, the New York Exhibition and a Recent Biography," International, journal ofthe Classical Tradition 14 (2008). Simon Corcoran, The Empire of the Tetrarchs: Imperial Pronouncements and Government, AD 284-324, rev. ed., Oxford Classical Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 189, also notes that the "edict" is not in fact an edict.
'Barnes, "Constantine After Seventeen Hundred Years."
9Lactantius Death 48. Eusebius's version is in Church History 10.5.
10Hermann Dorries, Constantine and Religious Liberty, trans. Roland Bainton (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1960), p. 23. On the "edict" of Milan, Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture: APost-Christendom Perspective (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006), is a bundle of contradictions. He faults Constantine for establishing religious freedom without any explicit acknowledgment of the truth of Christianity (p. 80) but then complains that Constantine set the trajectory for the persecution of non-Christians and heretics (p. 96). He suggests that Constantine might have used his power "to promote religious liberty and increase respect for human life and dignity" (p. 96), but he has already told us that the edict accomplished the first. It is not at all clear what Carter
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