Romans + Christianity

[tlclark]

Wow.

This thread is so far-ranging and quick moving I can hardly keep up.

First all of Philo's works are available online:

http://www.torreys.org/bible/philopag.html

My 2-cent take on Philo. A great thinker, but his impact on Christian thought is highly overrated. If you want to know more than that you'll have to read my dissertation and that only focuses on his impact on cosmology or Christology.

On Constantine,

The debate hinges on whether or not Christians were significant. There are two ways that Christians could have been significant.

1.) They were large in numbers all over the empire

there are some that suggest that 50% of the population was Christian. I don't know that I believe that. It also is irrelevant. The ability of the populace to influence the empire is overrated. It's not a democracy people. Even during the Byzantine period where MOST of the people were Christian their ability to influence state affairs was pretty limited. They could riot and they could...riot. And as often as not they rioted not over state affairs but chariot races! So even if there were a large group, which is tennuous, I'm not sure what advantage it would give Constantine to court this group. I know that today we have this great appreciation of democracy and involvement, but it's not a given that a society really care about their gov't. In fact the norm is that if your rulers are personally bothering you, you could put up with a lot.

It seems that the senate was largely still pagan, as were most of the old patrician families (if the diptych of the Nicomachi and Symmachi is any indication). By the fourth C. the Senate was important but of far less political potency. So where are the Christians?

2.) There were significant numbers of Christians in positions of power.

This is far more likely in my opinion and seems to suggest what tipped off the Diocletian purges. Christians had risen to significant levels of power all across the Roman Empire. Much of the welfare and civil magistricies were manned by Christians. Both Frend and Brown suggest that Christians had begun to operate as a state within a state. One of the interesting things that Brown recognizes is that the church had largely assimilated the court system by the seventh C. this process may have been underway in 4th.

In all likelihood, IF Constantine is pandering he is pandering to the mid-level middle class bureaucrats and civil servants and then there's the other possibility, the military, but that's why we started this thread, isn't it.

Great Thread everyone!!

Travis