creed and christian faith is the jesus was both god and man. the earliest communities were already giving jesus the worship that could only be given to god. this is happening 30 years of jesus death, but to find a philosophical language in which to say it, in which to formulate it, that took 300 years. the council of nicaea was not called in order to decide whether jesus was divine. it was called in order to decide in what way is jesus divine? is jesus a secondary deity, a subordinate deity, or in fact, is he equal with god the father. and the side that won out was the side that declared that jesus was equal with god the father, that he had always been god. beyond questions of dogma, however, constantine s nicaean council was also a major political turning point for the church. constantine declared christianity a legal religion, and he stopped the persecution, but it s not correct to say that constantine made christianity the official roman religion. in fact, he didn t make it t
they told him this meant that it was the cross of christ that would allow him to be victorious. and so he arranged to have the image of the cross painted on the shields of all of his warriors. constantine vowed to convert to christianity if he won the battle. and for centuries, his victory was seen as a turning point for christianity. but did constantine really convert to the faith his empire had tried to destroy? some historians have doubted whether constantine actually converted in the year 312, and it s true that there s some evidence that he retained a devotion to some of the roman gods. even after allegedly converted, for example, he minted coins in which he had a picture of the sun god. the inscription on the coin was
indeed, constantine was ruthless. he killed his son, his wife and several relatives. he had persecuted and tortured christians. yet with numbers in the millions, he knew they were crucial to keeping his fragile empire together. so he made christianity legal in the year 313 that ended decades of brutal persecution. but it marked fierce internal battles in the church. the biggest of which went to the heart of christianity. now while the church was persecuted in an illegal religion and underground, there was only so much work that it could do to normalize what would be the heart of christian
who in fact was overall. and so was he really a worshipper of the god of jesus or was he a worshipper of the sun god? by that time, of course, christians ran in the millions. and i suppose constantine thought.if you can t beat them, join them. and i think with his mother, too, well, he thought that this is true. constantine had an influential mother, helena, a devoted christian. she traveled to the holy land and located the most important sites from the christian story, building great shrines that remain among the holiest christian places today. she was a very noble lady, and she led the building program in the holy land to have the
the earliest communities were already giving jesus the worship that could only be given to god. this is happening 30 years of jesus death, but to find a philosophical language in which to say it, in which to formulate it, that took 300 years. the council of nicaea was not called in order to decide whether jesus was divine. it was called in order to decide in what way is jesus divine? is jesus a secondary deity, a subordinate deity, or in fact, is he equal with god the father. and the side that won out was the side that declared that jesus was equal with god the father, that he had always been god. beyond questions of dogma, however, constantine s nicaean council was also a major political turning point for the church. constantine declared christianity a legal religion, and he stopped the persecution, but it s not correct to say that constantine made christianity the official roman religion. in fact, he didn t make it the