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Book Review: Constantine and the

Christian Empire

Constantine and the Christian Empire

by Charles Matson Odahl, published by Routledge New York and Oxford HB 2004 PB 2005, 285 pages of text,  83 pages of notes, 20 pages of bibliography, 9 pages of index 8 maps, plus list of important dates, plenty of b/w photos of coins, buildings, statues, and places.  ISBN 0415386551
 

Odahl starts off with a survey of the sources for Constantine’s life, including a biography of Constantine and a church history, both by Eusebius of Caesarea, who knew Constantine personally; the anonymous “Origin of the Emperor Constantine”; other ecclesiastical and general histories; the panegyrics (formal speeches delivered in praise of the emperor as a rhetorical exercise); and the many polemical and other writings of the Christians of that time. Material remains of buildings constructed during Constantine’s reign, coins, and inscriptions are not neglected.

The rest of the book is basically chronological in structure, starting from a brief overview of the situation of the Roman Empire leading up to Diocletian’s establishment of the tetrarchy. A brief epilogue continues the story from Constantine’s death into the succeeding reigns of members of his family. A final, very brief, chapter looks at Constantine’s legacy.

The narrative portions of what happened when are well done. The discussion of Constantine’s conversion and the heavenly sign before the battle of the Milvian Bridge are interesting, and the theological controversies with the Donatists in North Africa and with the Arians in the East are made comprehensible enough to follow what was going on. 

Constantine was a controversial figure in his own time, and he still manages to arouse heated feelings over whether his religious policies were a good or bad thing for the Roman empire and how far his Christianity was a genuine personal faith rather than a political ploy. Odahl is  very pro-Constantine, and attempts to trace the development of Constantine’s own faith and show that his interventions in the theological controversies of the time were based on religious faith and understanding rather than political expediency.

If you want a basic understanding of how the Roman empire became Christian, to understand how the Nicene creed we repeat every Sunday was developed, and to be able to counter those who mistake Dan Brown’s fiction for fact, you could do a lot worse than read this book.

Robert Greaves

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