Defending Constantine: the twilight of an empire and the dawn of Christendom

Description

Sanguinary edicts -- Jupiter on the throne -- Instinctu divinitatus -- By this sign -- Liberator ecclesiae -- End of sacrifice -- Common bishop -- Nicaea and after -- Seeds of evangelical law -- Justice for all -- One God, one emperor -- Pacifist church? -- Christian empire, Christian mission -- Rome baptized.;Leithart reads the original ancient, the seminal secondary, and lots of other sources to contend that Constantine was a believer and a conciliator who sought theological agreement for the political stability it brought. Contra the influential interpretation of Anabaptist theologian John Howard Yoder, Leithart maintains that when Constantine is understood in historical context, his disestablishment of pagan religion opens a place for a Christian understanding of sacrifice and of the significance of the kingdom of God.--From publisher description. Sanguinary edicts -- Jupiter on the throne -- Instinctu divinitatus -- By this sign -- Liberator ecclesiae -- End of sacrifice -- Common bishop -- Nicaea and after -- Seeds of evangelical law -- Justice for all -- One God, one emperor -- Pacifist church? -- Christian empire, Christian mission -- Rome baptized.