Faith First Media

This is chapter fourteen of the book A Theology of Peace by Matthew Elton.

Click here to read the previous chapter: The Testimony of Early Christians

The Downfall of Nonviolent Theology Under Constantine

The quotations included in the previous section prove that the early church practiced literal, radical nonviolence according to the commands that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount. Yet the great majority of the Christian church today seems to condone violence as long as it is done in the name of patriotism, and even as early as the Middle Ages the Catholic Church supported the Crusades - a series of wars fought not even in defense but with the objective of capturing “holy” territory.

What happened to the nonviolence theology preached by Jesus and upheld by the early Christian church? For the first three hundred years after Christ, Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire, and the Romans were constantly persecuting Christians and putting them to death. However, even the most violent actions taken by the Roman Empire against the Christians did not produce any violence in returns. Because Christians refused to fight back with violence, they could easily be taken advantage of by the Romans. But nevertheless, Christianity continued to grow and spread at a seemingly exponential rate. The persecution of the Christian church was a terrible thing, but it was not all bad. Persecution weeded out false Christians to ensure that only those with strong faith remain - those who are so committed to Jesus that they are willing to stay committed even under the threat of death.

Then, in the early fourth century, a military commander named Constantine had a vision of two Greek letters: XP (“chi ro”). In the Greek language, these happen to be the first two letters in the Greek word for “Christ” although they could stand for many other words as well. But Constantine assumed that they must stand for “Christ,” so he “converted” to Christianity. I put “converted” in quotation marks because Constantine was never actually a Christian at all, as we shall soon see. For starters, his first action as a so-called “Christian” was to lead 98,000 soldiers to attack and overthrow the city of Rome in a bloody battle. After capturing the city through violence, Constantine’s next action as a so-called “Christian” was to erect a giant statue of himself at the center of the city. Having conquered Rome, he declared himself to be the new Emperor.

Constantine “converted” to Christianity for purely religious reasons. In addition to being a “Christian” and the head of the four “Patriarchs” (high ranking positions within the church that Constantine himself established as emperor) of the Christian church, Constantine was also the Pontifex Maximus - the high priest of pagan sun god worship. Thus he managed to seize great power in both the pagan world and the Christian world, giving him absolute control over every aspect of the Empire. For at least eight years after his “conversion” to Christianity, Constantine continued to build temples to Sol Ivictus (the Roman god of the sun) and mint coins bearing the image of Sol Ivictus on one side, and the name of Christ on the other. For Constantine, Yahweh - the God of the Bible - was not the One True God, but just one in a long list of gods. Constantine continued to serve as Pontifex Maximus until the day he died. Though he thought about being baptized in the Jordan River, in the end he put off Christian baptism until he was on his deathbed, where he was hastily baptized with only minutes to spare before he breathed his last breath. After his death, his sons, who were in charge of the Senate, declared that Constantine had entered the Afterlife and been reborn or reincarnated as a god himself.

If there is one thing to be said about Constantine, it is that he was a paranoid control-freak. He distrusted his brother Licinius and even sent an army of soldiers to capture him. His sister Constance made him promise to spare Licinius’ life. Licinius also happened to be Constance’s husband, so Constantine relented, and made a solemn vow to Constance that he would not kill Licinius. But in 325, the same year that the Nicene Council canonized the Bible, Constantine changed his mind, broke his promise, and had Licinius murdered. But Constantine’s reign of terror didn’t end there. On the contrary, it was only just getting started. After murdering his own brother, Constantine then ordered that his eleven year old nephew be murdered as well. The next year, in 326, Constantine ordered for his own son to be executed.

Clearly, Constantine was not a Christian in any sense of the word. He was, in fact, one of the most anti-Christian - some would even say satanic - rulers who ever lived. The great irony of history is that it was under Constantine that Christianity became a state-recognized religion in Rome, which ended the persecution of Christians, for the time being. Christians were no longer a persecuted minority - in fact they soon became the majority. Constantine is famous for having ended the persecution of the Christians, and the sudden yet peaceful transition from persecuted minority to state religion was viewed as major victory for the Christian church.

However, Christianity’s greatest victory was actually its greatest defeat in disguise. Post-Constantine Christianity turned out to be radically different from pre-Constantine Christianity. Constantine’s “conversion” was largely a political move in which he attempted to reunite the religiously diverse Empire under one religion. His choice of Christianity, however, posed major moral problems. The teachings of Jesus were blatantly pacifistic, and up to the time of Constantine, Christians had refused to join the military and they had never fought back even when faced by the most extreme persecution. If Christianity became the official religion of Rome and all of the Roman citizens converted to it, then Constantine’s military would be horribly compromised because Christians refuse to serve in the military. Yet how was Constantine supposed to defend his Empire without a strong military? To solve this problem, Constantine attempted to make theological changes to even the most fundamental tenants of Christianity. By holding a series of councils, Constantine managed to create a new religion that he called “Christianity”, although in actuality it was radically different from the theology taught by Jesus Christ. This theological shift - enforced by the Roman government for solely political reasons - horribly compromised the religion founded by Jesus and the Apostles. The Christian church would not even begin to recover until the Reformation, over a thousand years later.

John Howard Yoder identified six major shifts that occurred between pre-Constantine Christianity and post-Constantine Christianity:

1. Before Constantine, Christians were committed to following the commands of Jesus Christ, even if it meant certain death. Due to extreme persecution, no one would dare to call himself a “Christian” unless he was truly committed to the faith and was even willing to die for it. Under Constantine, Christianity was transformed into a sort of club that almost everyone wanted to join in order to be on the same side as the “Christian” emperor. With the persecution over and many thousands of people attending church for solely political purposes, it was suddenly very difficult to tell the difference between true disciples of Jesus and people who merely called themselves “Christians” solely for political gain.

2. Before Constantine, the Kingdom of God was the glorious hope shared by all Christians. Christians expected Jesus to appear at any moment in order to execute the final judgement and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. Christians expected Jesus to rule the Kingdom on God’s behalf, judging righteously and establishing world peace. Under Constantine, however, the Kingdom of God got renamed as “The Holy Roman Empire” and rather than expecting Jesus to return to rule the Kingdom, Constantine claimed that Jesus was already ruling the Empire, but rather than returning to Earth, he was ruling the Empire from heaven, doing so through his chosen representative on Earth, who Constantine claimed was himself. Thus, the Gospel of the coming Kingdom was almost completely forgotten, and loyalty to Christ was replaced by loyalty to the Empire.

3. Before Constantine, Christians asked themselves what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus. Under Constantine, Christians asked themselves if it was just for the “Christian” emperor to be constrained by the radically pacifist theology of Jesus. They thus began to view Christ’s teachings about nonviolence as a hindrance.

4. Before Constantine, persecution had weeded out all of the false Christians, ensuring that every Christian was a true disciple of Jesus who adhered to Christ’s teachings concerning nonviolence, followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and encouraged Christian brethren in the faith. Under Constantine, however, thousands of new “Christians” flooded the churches, but most of them did not have any serious commitment to the faith. Constantine had declared that Christianity was the new state religion, but Christians began to ask if a “Christian Empire” was even possible. They began to wonder of a military was even possible under Christ’s commands concerning nonviolence, and if a military was not possible, then how would the Empire defend itself?

5. Before Constantine, Christians were committed to following the commands of Jesus and the Apostles, even if it meant certain death. Under Constantine, however, the commands of the so-called “Christian Empire” replaced the commands of Jesus and the Apostles. Rather than asking what they could do to further the Gospel of the Kingdom, people began to ask what they could do to serve the Holy Roman Empire, and anything that helped to defend or expand the Empire - even if it directly contradicted what Jesus taught - was viewed as perfectly acceptable for the sake of the Empire.

6. Before Constantine, Christians made no differentiation between outward actions and inward beliefs. Faith was expected to inherently produce good works by its very nature. The Apostle Paul even went so far as to write that “faith without works is dead.” Under Constantine, however, people started getting the idea that there is a difference between what people believe and what they do, and, worse yet, Constantine insisted that the two do not necessarily have to agree. In other words, it became socially acceptable for Christians to attack and kill the enemy as long as they “love” the enemy in their hearts. Christianity no longer had anything to do with obedience to Jesus. Rather than following Jesus in their actions, people were now expected to follow Jesus “in their hearts” and follow the Empire in their actions. Christianity was thus reduced from a very real way and very radical way of life to a mere fuzzy feeling inside of you.

Yoder sums up these changes in one simple sentence: “Before Christianity it took courage to be a Christian; after Constantine it took courage to be a pagan."

Constantine brought about huge changes for Christianity and for the Roman Empire. In the year 303, it was illegal for anyone who was a Christian to serve in the military. In the year 416, it was illegal for anyone who was not a Christian to serve in the military. Christ’s teachings concerning nonviolence had been forgotten in favor of serving the “Christian Empire."

See also:

• Pacifism: Following Christ's Example
• Conquering Evil by Doing Good
• A Theology of Peace: Introduction
• The Kingdom of God
• The Sermon on the Mount
• Turning the Other Cheek
• Giving the Coat Also
• Going the Extra Mile
• The Example of Christ
• The Example of the Apostles
• The Resurrection of Jesus
• The Holy Spirit
• The New Covenant
• The Kingdom Lifestyle
• The Example of the Anabaptists
• A Return to Christian Nonviolence

Have questions, comments, criticisms, or concerns?

Email the author at: matt@faithfirstmedia.com