Christianity's acceptance as a legal religion changed it in profound ways. Why was this?
Christianity was originally a small group of people who followed the teachings of God, then suddenly it is the preferred religion of Rome, this overnight change caused several problems. Now that Christianity was publicly accepted and practiced, people began to notice that not every church had the same access to the scriptures, some had the letters of Paul, whereas others had none of his letters. Some churches had appointed leaders, while others did not. With Constantine's conversion the churches were unified and given structure. Another change was the combining of Christianity and Roman Tradition, this was more than likely done to help the Romans to accept Christianity as their new religion.
How helpful is the term "transformation", when considering the cultural and political shifts that took place in the Roman Empire during the fifth century? Is it more or less helpful than Gibbon's terms, "decline" and "fall"? Why?
ReplyDeleteHow or even should a historian evaluate the "authenticity" of the conversion of Constantine?