The Role Of The Christian Church In The Fourth Century

As the saying goes, “change is inevitable.” The third century of the church was a time of strong adversity. Christians were being unjustly persecuted by the Roman government, lead by Constantine. However, in 313, the Roman government had a change of heart and banned their Christian persecution. Christianity, among other religions, could now be practiced freely. As a result of Constantine’s decision, the fourth century is considered to be a major turning point in the course of church history. This allowed Christians to go from being persecuted into becoming an extensive and powerful empire. Constantine and his successors, now favoring the Christian religion, made many contributions to the church to show his appreciation. One favor Constantine generously gave the Church was giving it many buildings for public worship and other uses. He and his successors successfully managed to build grand churches in Constantinople, the Christian empire’s new capital. Constantine himself wasn’t a Christian until almost his death. Thus, he viewed the Church similarly to the way early pagan emperors looked over the old Roman state religion. As they had alike views, Constantine viewed the Church as just another government of which he was in charge of. While he thought highly of himself, his role meant he
These writers were so profound that they are honored to this day as Fathers of the Church. Living from the first to the eighth century in many places, they’re all considered to be key witnesses of the ancient Church. The literature that the Fathers composed were written in mainly Latin or Greek and produced work called patristic literature. They were very bold individuals, for they devoted their entire lives to reflecting on and documenting about the meaning of the life, ministry, and teachings of