Christ the Emperor: Christian Theology and the Roman Emperor in the Fourth Century AD
Nathan Israel Smolin, "Christ the Emperor: Christian Theology and the Roman Emperor in the Fourth Century AD "
English | ISBN: 019768954X | 2024 | 392 pages | EPUB | 1253 KB
English | ISBN: 019768954X | 2024 | 392 pages | EPUB | 1253 KB
Politics and diplomacy have always been as much about the social and cultural contexts within which political actors operate as they are about the political structures themselves. This was also true of the Roman Empire of the fourth century AD, ruled by the Emperor Constantine the Great–a society marked by social, religious, and political transformation as the empire came under the influence of the Christian Church. Studies of this period often note the difficulty of understanding its politics due to a lack of sources that discuss questions central to political theory. This has led to deprecating views of the Late Empire as an age of unquestioning despotism, political decline, and social decay. Recent scholarship has correctly pushed back against this viewpoint, emphasizing the vibrancy of art, architecture, and social life during this period; however, relatively little attention has yet been given to the deeply consequential effects of Christian theology on the period's politics.
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