The Making of a Christian Empire

by Digeser, Elizabeth Depalma

• ISBN13: 9780801435942
• ISBN10: 0801435943
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-18
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

The work of the Christian scholar Lactantius provides an ideal lens through which to study how Rome became a Christian empire. Elizabeth DePalma Digeser shows how Lactantius' Divine Institutes -- seditious in its time -- responded to the emperor Diocletian's persecution and then became an important influence on Constantine the Great, Rome's first Christian emperor.

The Making of a Christian Empire is the first full-length book to interpret the Divine Institutes as a historical source. Exploring Lactantius' use of theology, philosophy, and rhetorical techniques, Digeser perceives the Divine Institutes as a sophisticated proposal for a monotheistic state that intimately connected the religious policies of Diocletian and Constantine, both of whom used religion to fortify and unite the Roman Empire. For Digeser, Lactantius' writings justify Constantine's own attitude of tolerance toward pagans and casts light upon other puzzling features of Constantine's religious policy. Her book contributes importantly to rail understanding of the political and religious tensio

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Abbreviations	xiii
Prologue: Nicomedia: Winter 302--303	1	(144)
Conceptions of Monotheism	6	(1)
Lactantius's Response	7	(12)
Defying the Dominate	19	(27)
The Crumbling Principate: The Transformation of the Emperor	20	(5)
Diocletian's Dominate: A New Style of Rule	25	(7)
Lactantius's Criticisms of the Dominate	32	(8)
Lactantius's Solution: A Return to the Principate	40	(6)
Prosecuting the Jurists	46	(18)
Bringing the Provinces under Roman Law	47	(6)
The Tetrarchy's Drive for Legal Uniformity	53	(3)
Harmonizing Roman and Christian Law: Lactantius's Ideal State	56	(8)
Persuading the Philosophers	64	(27)
Hermes Trismegistus: Plato's Ancient Source	65	(2)
Bridging the Gap between Philosophical Monotheism and Christianity	67	(17)
An Inclusive Christianity	84	(7)
Forging Forbearance	91	(24)
Porphyry as Lactantius's Anonymous Philosopher	93	(9)
Lactantius's Familiarity with the Philosophy from Oracles	102	(5)
The Issue of Tolerance	107	(4)
Tolerance versus Concord	111	(4)
Constantine and the New Rome	115	(30)
Constantine and the Question of Tolerance	117	(4)
Constantine's Religious Policy	121	(4)
Sole Rule	125	(8)
Lactantius and Constantine: A Policy of Concord	133	(5)
Transforming the Constitution	138	(7)
Notes	145	(32)
Bibliography	177	(20)
Index	197