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Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

Peter J. Leithart (Author)

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Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 373
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN#: 9780830827220

Availability: Usually ships the same business day.

Description: We know that Constantine

    * issued the Edict of Milan in 313
    * outlawed paganism and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire
    * manipulated the Council of Nicea in 325
    * exercised absolute authority over the church, co-opting it for the aims of empire

And if Constantine the emperor were not problem enough, we all know that Constantinianism has been very bad for the church.

Or do we know these things?

Peter Leithart weighs these claims and finds them wanting. And what's more, in focusing on these historical mirages we have failed to notice the true significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. For beneath the surface of this contested story there emerges a deeper narrative of the end of Roman sacrifice--a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire--and with far-reaching implications.

In this probing and informative book Peter Leithart examines the real Constantine, weighs the charges against Constantinianism, and sets the terms for a new conversation about this pivotal emperor and the Christendom that emerged.

"Too many people, for far too long, have been able to murmur the awful word Constantine, knowing that the shudder it produces will absolve them from the need to think through how the church and the powers of the world actually relate, let alone construct a coherent historical or theological argument on the subject. Peter Leithart challenges all this, and forces us to face the question of what Constantine's settlement actually was, and meant. Few will agree with everything he says. All will benefit enormously from this challenge to easygoing received 'wisdom.'"
—N. T. Wright, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

"For a generation that thinks it approves of those who challenge the conventional wisdom, it can come as quite a shock when someone actually does it. In this book, Peter Leithart takes up the daunting challenge of defending Constantine, and he does it with biblical grace, deep wisdom, profound learning and scholarship that has let the clutch out. This is a magnificent book."
—Douglas Wilson, senior fellow of theology, New Saint Andrews College, Idaho

"Leithart has written an important book that does more than help us to better understand the complex human being who bore the name of Constantine. . . As a pacifist I could not want a better conversation partner than Peter Leithart."
—Stanley Hauerwas, Christian Century, October 19, 2010

About the Author
Peter J. Leithart (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho, and senior fellow at New Saint Andrews College. He has also served as editor and writer for American Vision in Atlanta, Georgia, and as pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Leithart has written numerous articles for publications such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, First Things, Modern Theology, Journal of Biblical Literature and The Westminster Theological Journal, and he serves as a contributing editor to Touchstone magazine. He is the author of several books, including Deep Comedy, Against Christianity, A Son to Me and A House for My Name.
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
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Monergism Books is a Reformed Christian Internet bookseller with the goal of equipping Christians in the truth by making available the finest classic resources of historical orthodoxy. This is done in the hope that the church will embrace, and recover a Christ-centered gospel and the true Biblical doctrines of the historic faith.


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