Download or read book Defending Constantine written by Peter J. Leithart and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Leithart weighs what we've been taught about Constantine and claims that in focusing on these historical mirages we have failed to notice the true significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. He reveals how beneath the surface of this contested story there lies a deeper narrative--a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire--with far-reaching implications.
Download or read book Constantine Revisited written by John D. Roth and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-06-27 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays continues a long and venerable debate in the history of the Christian church regarding the legacy of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. For some, Constantine's conversion to Christianity early in the fourth century set in motion a process that made the church subservient to the civil authority of the state, brought a definitive end to pacifism as a central teaching of the early church, and redefined the character of Christian catechesis and missions. In 2010, Peter J. Leithart published a widely read polemic, Defending Constantine, that vigorously refuted this interpretation. In its place, Leithart offered a thoroughgoing rehabilitation of Constantine and his legacy, while directing a rhetorical fusillade against the pacifist theology and ethics of the Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. The essays gathered here in response to Leithart reflect the insights of eleven leading theologians, historians, and ethicists from a wide range of theological traditions. They engage one of the most contentious issues in Christian church history in irenic fashion and at the highest level of scholarship. In so doing, they help ensure that the "Constantinian Debate" will continue to be lively, substantive, and consequential.
Download or read book Constantine and Eusebius written by Timothy David Barnes and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1981 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the fullest available narrative history of the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, and a new assessment of the part Christianity played in the Roman world of the third and fourth centuries.
Download or read book Between Babel and Beast written by Peter J. Leithart and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-07-06 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States is one of history's great Christian nations, but our unique history, success, and global impact have seduced us into believing we are something more--God's New Israel, the new order of the ages, the last best hope of mankind, a redeemer nation. Using the subtle categories that arise from biblical narrative, Between Babel and Beast analyzes how the heresy of Americanism inspired America's rise to hegemony while blinding American Christians to our failures and abuses of power. The book demonstrates that the church best serves the genuine good of the United States by training witnesses--martyr-citizens of God's Abrahamic empire.
Download or read book Constantine Versus Christ written by Alistair Kee and published by Wipf and Stock. This book was released on 2016-08-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of this book is politics and religion, the relationship between Constantine and Christianity. Something happened in the reign of the Emperor Constantine that transformed both politics and religion in Europe, and anyone who seeks to understand modern Christianity must analyze this transformation and its consequences. The reign of Constantine is remembered as the victory of Christianity over the Roman Empire; the subtitle of the book indicates a more ominous assessment: ""the triumph of ideology."" Through a careful analysis of the sources, Dr. Kee argues that Constantine was not in fact a Christian and that the sign in which he conquered was not the cross of Christ but a political symbol of his own making. However, that is only the beginning of the story. For Constantine, religion was part of an imperial strategy, and the second part of this book shows just what that strategy was. Here is the development which marks a transition to a further stage, the way in which by using Christianity for his own ends, Constantine transformed it into something completely different. Constantine, Dr. Kee argues, along with his biographer and panegyrist Eusebius, succeeded in replacing the norms of Christ and the early church with the norms of imperial ideology. Why it has been previously thought that Constantine was a Christian is not because what he believed was Christian, but because what he believed came to be called Christian. And that represents ""the triumph of ideology."""
Download or read book Constantine the Emperor written by David Stone Potter and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative and vibrant new account of the extraordinary life of Constantine.
Download or read book Constantine s Bible written by David L. Dungan and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most college and seminary courses on the New Testament include discussions of the process that gave shape to the New Testament. David Dungan re-examines the primary source for the history, the Ecclesiastical History of the fourth-century Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, in the light of Hellenistic political thought. He reaches new conclusions: that we usually use the term "canon" incorrectly; that the legal imposition of a "canon" or "rule" upon scripture was a fourth- and fifth-century phenomenon enforced with the power of the Roman imperial government; that the forces shaping the New Testament canon are much earlier than the second-century crisis occasioned by Marcion, and that they are political forces. Dungan discusses how the scripture selection process worked, book-by-book, as he examines the criteria used-and not used-to make these decisions. He describes the consequences of the emperor Constantine's tremendous achievement in transforming orthodox, Catholic Christianity into imperial Christianity. --From publisher's description.
Download or read book Constantine s Sword written by James Carroll and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2002 with total page 774 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rare book that combines searing passion with a subject that has affected all of our lives. "Chicago Tribune" Novelist, cultural critic, and former priest James Carroll marries history with memoir as he maps the two-thousand-year course of the Church s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has sparked in his own life. Fascinating, brave, and sometimes infuriating ("Time"), this dark history is more than a chronicle of religion. It is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture to create a deeply felt work ("San Francisco Chronicle") as Carroll wrangles with centuries of strife and tragedy to reach a courageous and affecting reckoning with difficult truths."
Download or read book Against Christianity written by Peter J. Leithart and published by Canon Press & Book Service. This book was released on 2003 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How could a conservative Christian-an ordained minister with a beard, no less-be against not only Christianity, but theology, sacraments, and ethics as well? Yet that is the stance Peter Leithart takes in this provocative "theological bricolage." Seeking to rethink evangelical notions of culture, church, and state, Leithart offers a series of short essays, aphorisms, and parables that challenge the current dichotomies that govern both Christian and non- Christian thinking about church and state, the secular and the religious. But his argument isn't limited to being merely "against." Leithart reveals a much larger vision of Christian society, defined by the stories, symbols, rituals, and rules of a renewed community-the city of God.
Download or read book China The Gathering Threat written by Constantine C. Menges and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2005-04-17 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a book that is as certain to be as controversial as it is meticulously researched, a former special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and senior official of the Central Intelligence Agency shows that the U.S. could be headed toward a nuclear face-off with communist China within four years. And it definitively reveals how China is steadily pursuing a stealthy, systematic strategy to attain geopolitical and economic dominance first in Asia and Eurasia, then possibly globally, within the next twenty. Using recently declassified documents, statements by Russian and Chinese leaders largely overlooked in the Western media, and groundbreaking analysis and investigative work, Menges explains China's plan thoroughly, exposing: China's methods of economic control. China's secret alliance with Russia and other anti-America nations, including North Korea. China's growing military and nuclear power-over 90 ICBMs, many of them aimed at U.S. cities. How China and Russia have been responsible for weaponizing terrorists bent on harming the U.S. Damage caused by China's trade tactics (since 1990, we've lost 8 million jobs thanks to China trade surpluses).
Download or read book Constantine written by Timothy D. Barnes and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-11-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on recent scholarly advances and new evidence, Timothy Barnes offers a fresh and exciting study of Constantine and his life. First study of Constantine to make use of Kevin Wilkinson's re-dating of the poet Palladas to the reign of Constantine, disproving the predominant scholarly belief that Constantine remained tolerant in matters of religion to the end of his reign Clearly sets out the problems associated with depictions of Constantine and answers them with great clarity Includes Barnes' own research into the marriage of Constantine's parents, Constantine's status as a crown prince and his father's legitimate heir, and his dynastic plans Honorable Mention for 2011 Classics & Ancient History PROSE award granted by the Association of American Publishers
Download or read book Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine written by Jacob Neusner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1987-10-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the conversion of Constantine in 312, Christianity began a period of political and cultural dominance that it would enjoy until the twentieth century. Jacob Neusner contradicts the prevailing view that following Christianity's ascendancy, Judaism continued to evolve in isolation. He argues that because of the political need to defend its claims to religious authenticity, Judaism was forced to review itself in the context of a triumphant Christianity. The definition of issues long discussed in Judaism—the meaning of history, the coming of the Messiah, and the political identity of Israel—became of immediate and urgent concern to both parties. What emerged was a polemical dialogue between Christian and Jewish teachers that was unprecedented. In a close analysis of texts by the Christian theologians Eusebius, Aphrahat, and Chrysostom on one hand, and of the central Jewish works the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Genesis Rabbah, and the Leviticus Rabbah on the other, Neusner finds that both religious groups turned to the same corpus of Hebrew scripture to examine the same fundamental issues. Eusebius and Genesis Rabbah both address the issue of history, Chrysostom and the Talmud the issue of the Messiah, and Aphrahat and Leviticus Rabbah the issue of Israel. As Neusner demonstrates, the conclusions drawn shaped the dialogue between the two religions for the rest of their shared history in the West.
Download or read book Constantius II written by Peter Crawford and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling biography of Constantine I’s heir: “Excellent analyses of a number of battles and sieges . . . a good read for anyone interested in the late Empire.” —The NYMAS Review The reign of Constantius II has been overshadowed by that of his titanic father, Constantine the Great, and his cousin and successor, the pagan Julian. But as Peter Crawford shows, Constantius deserves to be remembered as a very capable ruler in dangerous, tumultuous times. When Constantine I died in 337, twenty-year-old Constantius and his two brothers, Constans and Constantine II, all received the title of Augustus to reign as equal co-emperors. In 340, however, Constantine II was killed in a fraternal civil war with Constans. The two remaining brothers shared the Empire for the next ten years, with Constantius ruling Egypt and the Asian provinces, constantly threatened by the Sassanid Persian Empire. Constans in turn was killed by the usurper Magnentius in 350. Constantius refused to accept this fait accompli, made war on Magnentius, and defeated him at the battles of Mursa Major and Mons Seleucus, leading Magnentius to commit suicide. Constantius was now sole ruler of the Empire—but it was an empire beset by external enemies. This historical biography recounts Constantius’ life and his successful campaigns against the Germanic Alamanni along the Rhine and the Quadi and Sarmatians across the Danube, as well as his efforts against the Persians in the East, which had more mixed results—and reveals how he defended the Empire until his dying day.
Download or read book Constantine written by Paul Stephenson and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “knowledgeable account” of the emperor who brought Christianity to Rome “provides valuable insight into Constantine’s era” (Kirkus Reviews). “By this sign conquer.” So began the reign of Constantine. In 312 A.D. a cross appeared in the sky above his army as he marched on Rome. In answer, Constantine bade his soldiers to inscribe the cross on their shield, and so fortified, they drove their rivals into the Tiber and claimed Rome for themselves. Constantine led Christianity and its adherents out of the shadow of persecution. He united the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire, raising a new city center in the east. When barbarian hordes consumed Rome itself, Constantinople remained as a beacon of Roman Christianity. Constantine is a fascinating survey of the life and enduring legacy of perhaps the greatest and most unjustly ignored of the Roman emperors—written by a richly gifted historian. Paul Stephenson offers a nuanced and deeply satisfying account of a man whose cultural and spiritual renewal of the Roman Empire gave birth to the idea of a unified Christian Europe underpinned by a commitment to religious tolerance. “Successfully combines historical documents, examples of Roman art, sculpture, and coinage with the lessons of geopolitics to produce a complex biography of the Emperor Constantine.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book The Making of a Christian Empire written by Elizabeth DePalma Digeser and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Making of a Christian Empire is the first full-length book to interpret the Divine Institutes as a historical source. Exploring Lactantius's 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."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Ecclesiastical History written by Sozomen and published by . This book was released on 1846 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Constantine and the Conversion of Europe written by Arnold Hugh Martin Jones and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1978-01-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of politics and religion during a key era (AD 284 - 337) when Christianity established itself as the dominant force shaping government and civilization. Reprinted from the 1962 edition, first published in 1948.
