Chhi 520 Task 1

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT

GEINUINE FAITH

OR

NECESSITY OF STATE

CHHI 520 (SPRING 2013)

Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary

By

Stephen P. Higgs (ID 25106280)

May 5, 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..2
FAMILY HISTORY AND CHRISTIAN BACKDROP……………………………2-3
CONVERSION EXPERIENCE…………………………………………………….3-4
CHRISTIAN AFTERMATH AND RESULT OF CONVERSION………………...5
NEW CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS…………………………………………….5-6
THE CHRISTIANITY OF CONSTANTINE………………………………………7
AUTHENTICITY OF CONSTANTINE’S CONVERSION……………………….7-9
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………...9-10
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………...11

INTRODUCTION
However, like most Christians, an understanding of his own Christianity would have most likely increased. It is clear that he supported Christianity because he believed the experience he had was divine and the victory his troops had won would not have been possible without the help of God. It does appear to be clear that Constantine’s conversion was convenient for his own aspirations; he did support a unity and “harmony” of the church and state and he pursued and implemented policies to end Christian persecutions and provide an inclusiveness and flexibility for Christians and extended poser to the authority of the church and his subjects.12 It may be prudent to hold judgment regarding the validity or authenticity of Constantine’s Christianity when one understands Constantine’s motives or actions. One such action which leads one to judgment is the fact that Constantine delayed his own baptism until near his death in 337 and that Constantine had his wife, Fausta, and his son Crispus murdered for political reasons. However, in Constantine’s mind, such actions may not have been contradictory but a necessity of the responsibly he may have felt for the religious welfare of his subjects and the state along with personal weakness from being simply human, despite his conversion. Individuals within scripture were at times no different. King David and Moses come to