Constantinianism – The view that the church and state are unified, in which the state exists protects the church and recognizes it as the sole religion of the Empire and the lack of support for non-Christian religions such as Judaism.
Strengths: It sought to end the war among Christians in the Roman Empire by decriminalizing Christian doctrine and practice and creating a single Christian theology and practice – a unified Christianity.
- He made the laws based on a Christian perspective of hope, forgiveness and love such as giving prisoners the right to see daylight and the abolishment of crucifixion.
Weaknesses: Constantine forced non-believers of Christianity to pay for the building expenses of the Church which is a precursor to the Church’s corruption in the centuries to
…show more content…
Augustine, he believed that the separation of church and state was necessary and that the church answers to the state for political issues and the state answers to the church for religious issues yet both are equally important for the spread of the Gospels.
Strengths: His views influenced the development of Western Christianity and Philosophy through the concept of the Two Cities – the City of God and the City of the State or the Material City, as separate entities that work together for the harmony of the people and religion.
- This model still gives fundamentalists a way to maintain their sense of Christian theology in a world where religion is no longer the driving force for society, culture and human nature.
Weaknesses: His teaching often revolved around the ancient Christian theologies such as Original Sin and predestination or fate. This was disputed by many who were all about doing things for the sake of the individual and the belief in one’s ability to change their destiny based on the choices they made. It caused for a break in Christianity between the ancient teachings and the new ones impacted by modern thinking and
From 300-600 CE The Roman Empire allowed new religions to be formed and universalized. The Religion that was associated with The Roman empire was Christianity. Christianity became the religion of Rome because of a man named Constantine who allowed Christianity to spread and flow throughout the empire create a harmony throughout the people. Constantine allowed for the Roman officials to adopt Christianity and this led to the building of the Constantinople. Christianity had basilicas which were opulent churches that were open to all which meant any person could go there allowing Christianity to be very universal. Christianity was also very appealing because the worshiped deity walked on land with the people. Christianity split and became the Roman Catholic church which consisted
It isn't as simple as saying that the church and state were connected or they weren't. For example, Henry VIII and Calvinism both utilized a strong church state connection, but Henry VIII used the church to empower the state, while Calvinism did the opposite. Some used the church and state relationship for gain of power and control, while for others it was truly what they believed was right. Church and state relationships are complex and deep. Each one was unique and added to the individual religion in its own
In St. Augustine’s book entitled Political Writings, one could see that Christianity plays a very important role in his view of politics. His opinion on the morality or lack of morality in politics, to me makes it more evident that Christianity persuades his views. Although it seems his writings have become quite well known and admired, not everyone fully shared his beliefs. Niccolo Machiavelli, for instance, seemed to believe in a government that was not driven by morality, but more by practicality. In, The Prince, Machiavelli stresses that the moral fibers of government should not be so soft. Like St. Augustine, his work went on to become one of the most famous books ever written about politics. Throughout the two works there are some similarities and differences regarding politics, however it their view of Christianity and morality that many find most intriguing.
His basic idea was this: In any given situation, a person should do what he called "the loving thing" rather than follow rigid rules derived from Divine revelation--or for that matter, any set of rigid rules, even those coming from simple reasoning. This idea is based on the worship of the person! That humankind, in its natural state, is "fundamentally, decent, enlightened, reasonable, and eager to do the right thing".
When we think of religion and how it has helped mould our society, we might think of moral values. However, religion has affected much more than that. It has changed the way we live our lives, even from our early history. An example of this is the conversion of Constantine. The emperor Constantine has been called the most important emperor of the late antiquity. The many great events of his reign laid foundations that would affect the future of Europe and Western Civilization for centuries to come. His recognition and support of Christianity was one of the most important moments in world history. Moving the government of the Roman Empire to Constantinople and founding “New Rome” was one of the most significant decisions ever made by a Roman
St. Augustine has taken Plato’s notions, and have furthered the implications of living a life that strives towards a common good. In the City of God, the purpose of a citizen’s existence is to pursue an alignment with God, rather than to seek a common good. Through an alignment with God, there is no need for political regimes or any form of governance. This solves the issues that Plato and Aristotle disputes concerning the best regimes.
Christians went from being persecuted to dominating Rome rather quickly. In a world where separation between church and state does not exist, a Christian becoming the sole emperor of Rome symbolized a huge turning point in history. The power switched and the Pagans in turn became persecuted. Christians rose up and took control of all aspects of Roman society. The Pagan past was destroyed, banned, or forgotten about. Those Christians that did not agree with how things were being run either left the empire and became monks or formed their own sect. All of Rome changed.
While he was studying and learning the scriptures he became exceedingly fearful of God and was quite concerned about how he would ever be forgiven for his sins. This weighed heavily on him to the point that he became eccentric in his attempts and methods to be forgiven. He eventually left for Wittenberg and became a theology lecturer while he was studying for his doctorate. It was that during this time his manner of thinking started to change. He started to read and interpret the scriptures on his own instead of blindly following the message that the church preaches about it. One day while working on a lecture he came across the phrase “the just shall live by faith,” (Christ pp195) which transformed the way he thought about God and the good works doctrine of the church. He now started to believe that God was a just and a benevolent God, and that forgiveness did not depend on his own righteousness. He started to see that humankind could not be righteous because we were prone to sin from the beginning and that all it took was for one to place his faith in Jesus Christ and God would pronounce that sinner
He had found, "God had, in the obedience of Jesus Christ, reconciled humanity to himself." "What was required of mankind, therefore, was not strict adherence to law or the fulfillment of religious obligations, but a response of faith that accepted what God had done." In other words he realized that religion is based on love and not fear. Basically, he realized that everyone is burdened by sin because it happens as a result of our weaknesses. He concluded that man could never earn his salvation by leading a blameless life or by performing holy acts. Instead, man's salvation was a divine gift from God resulting from faith in Jesus, especially the saving power of his death and resurrection. This was known ...
Constantine was able to remain true to his religious beliefs and Christianity was allowed to flourish in the open. The edict protected Christians from being tortured by the pagan leaders and restored their places of worship into the hands of Christian leaders. Having possession of their religious artifacts gave Christians encouragement as they returned to worship in their churches. Christian freedom led to their presence in community where they could openly express their religious beliefs and moral values. The pagans continued to try and prevent the growth of Christianity and more wars ensued but at least the Christians now had legal recourse.
Another factor, which many scholars believe to be the single most important in the spread of Christianity, is the Pax Romana. This saw a period of over two hundred years, between 30 b.c. and a.d. 193, in which there was almost total world peace, Antoninus Pius wrote in circa 150 a.d., " Wars have so far vanished as to be regarded as legendary events of the past". This peace brought great prosperity to the vast Roman Empire as money was not being spent on costly wars and so materialism became prominent, another consequence was that people now had more time to think about issues such as religion. Another benefit of the Pax Romana was that frontiers were removed and so early missionaries could travel between countries within the Empire with ease, "A man can travel from one country to another although it was his nature land" (Pius). Also, because of a "considerable civil service" (Frend) to police the roads, there was a great decrease in the amount of bandits on the main roads and so the missionaries travel was a great deal safer.
...antine Empire saw the potential of the church and the threat to their power it posed, so the way that they could remove the threat and bolster their own power would be to take over the church through the Iconoclasms.
There was an ignited passion for Jesus and his ministry among the people. The Romans were not pleased and began murdering Christians left and right. This changed when Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of Rome. Quickly, Christianity became popular; dimming the once so ignited passion for God. The more Christianity became kosher, the more the early Christians fell into love with the state. Maybe the separation of church and state is not such a bad thing.
Christianity obtained much growth from the great moral force of its central beliefs and values. Their message was one of salvation through the crucified and risen Lord. "Through this man," said Paul in 13:38, "forgiveness is proclaimed to you." In Peter's speeches, this forgiveness was confined to forgiving the Jews for crucifying Jesus. For Paul it included much more: "You are freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses" (13: 39). In other words, the requirements of the law to be circumcised, to sacrifice in the temple, to keep the food laws of the Jewish people did not offer freedom but slavery. But in Christ the person is freed from the false requirements that do not bring life and is ushered into the new life in Christ. Additionally, in a society where many suffered crisis Christians successfully responded to the challenges of social chaos precipitated by poverty, disease, famine, and social chaos and thus singling itself out as the only movement to deal effectively with the large scale social problems of the Roman Empire. The Christian church possessed the organizational structures to carry out its mission along with the reli...
Two of America’s well known thinkers, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, created the precedent for how political and ecclesiastical groups would exist autonomously in order to guarantee a favorable outcome for both. To allow for proper functioning and success, an entity must be able to act independently without reliance on another. If one party is disadvantaged, those disadvantages way on both sides. If one party is successful but to the point of dominance, the other becomes weakened and its needs placed in the shadow. Because of this, separation of the church from the state allows for both groups to function at their fullest without fear of being suppressed by greatness or burdened by the others vulnerabilities.