In 325, Constantine wrote a letter announcing the deposition of Eusebius of Nicomedia. As Timothy Barnes points out, it exemplifies the “pattern of respect tempered with frustration” that characterized Constantine’s relations with the bishops.
One passage is reminiscent of Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians: “it was truly worthy of wonder to bring into concord so many nations who were recently said not to know God. Yet what were these nations with no part in the conflict likely to perceive? What, beloved brothers, do you think is my complaint against you? We are Christians, and we quarrel in a pitiful state of mind. Is this our faith, this the teaching of our law? What is the cause by which the disaster of the present evil has been aroused? What perversity! What hatred, which far exceeds the measure of righteous indignation!”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
More from History
Continue reading related articles
Realness of Things Past
Greg Anderson began thinking about the thesis of his Realness of Things Past while working on a book on the “state” in classical Greece. He discovered there was no such thing as an Athenian “state,” and that conclusion led him to question the way historians do history. Instead of running…
The Power of the Margins
David Martin (1929-2019) was a secularization skeptic. He acknowledged that modern societies typically undergo a process of "differentiation," in which various sectors of social and political life free themselves from the oversight of religious authority. He acknowledged that in many modern societies religious institutions and values are "marginalized." But he…
Zwinglian Symbolism
Nathan Mitchell (writing in the Oxford History of Christian Worship , 324) denies that Zwingli taught a "mere symbolist" according to which the Supper "simply served to remind believers of the great benefits bestowed on them through Christ's passion and death." Zwingli wasn't a symbolist "in any modern sense." Mitchell…
In Medias Res
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.