III. Constantine The evidence is so thin on the ground that we will never know how the new religion fared from one decade to the next. It may have grown steadily, it may have had its ups and downs. But we know that an extremely critical moment came early in the fourth century when a Roman emperor was converted to the religion. From that moment on, we can very nearly say “Christianity had it made.” Perhaps not quite so, perhaps another Justinian or two or three might have come along, perhaps secular authorities might have adopted fewer measures that hindered paganism and promoted Christianity. But Christianity did become first highly tolerated and soon enough the favored religion backed by state power. It spread to Europe, and as Europe rose, so would the religion as well. Constantine would not have converted to a minor religion, would hot have hitched his political wagon to a religion he was not assured would not falter. And that assurance required that in the preceding century or so, the religion grew at a fast and steady pace. We can be sure that it did so--else it would not have been so favored by Constantine as it was. We need to inquire, though, as to the basis of its success, as to how it appealed to so many converts across the empire. The third critical period in the rise of Christianity to preeminence is the third century. Why did it catch the fancy of so many people that when Constantine surveyed the scene in 313 he saw fit to permit the new religion to proselytize freely, and set the empire on the road to embracing it as its own? What had adherents of the faith done in the previous century that advanced it so far even Constantine saw its appeal and put it to his own purposes? What gave the new religion an edge so that it more than held its own against its pagan rivals? First, it was good to tout One God, who could overpower any other and would brook no competition. And to hold out the prospect of an afterlife, where, it was said, the one God would reward those who took up the new religion and punish those who didn’t. But more important was Christians performance of miracles. It needs to be remarked that at the outset that, as Ramsay MacMullen observes, “the people of the Roman Empire ... took miracles for granted. ... Not to believe in them would have made you seem more than odd, simply irrational, as it would have seemed irrational seriously to believe babies are brought by storks.” In this credulous time Christians were able to take advantage of reputation established by Jesus and his disciples for wielding the authority (exousia) to exorcise demons (daimones). The competition was strong and credulity as to the existence of demons and the ability to overmaster them was paired with skepticism as to the bona fides any particular exorcist. As MacMullen puts it, “only the most probative demonstrations would work.” But such was Christians’ street cred that healing and exorcism were “the chief instrument of conversion.” So Justin boasted “how many persons possessed by demons ... have been exorcised by many of our Christian men. Tertullian [issued] the challenge, ‘let a man be produced right here before your court who, it is clear, is possessed by a demon in truth, as by lying, he will elsewhere profess himself a ‘god’’; and Cyprian once again declaring that demons in idols, ‘when the adjured by us in the name of the true God, yield forthwith, and confess, and admit they are forced also to leave the bodies they have invaded, and you may see them, by our summons and by he workings of hidden majesty, consumed with flames.’” So, MacMullen concludes, “the manhandling of demons--humiliating them, making them howl, beg for mercy, tell their secrets, and depart in a hurry ... made ... visible the superiority of the Christian’s patron Power over all others.” Or, as Peter Brown says, “however many sound social and cultural reasons the historian may find for the expansion of the Christian Church, the fact remains that in all Christian literature from the New Testament onwards, Christian missionaries advanced principally by revealing the bankruptcy of men’s invisible enemies, the demons, through exorcisms and miracles of healing.” IV. Conclusion Most new religions attract few followers and disappear in a few generations or even a lifetime. Christianity has proven to be the most fortunate of all new religions, and in less than three centuries gathered in the emperor himself. It could not have accomplished so much were it not for three contingencies that worked decisively in its favor. A few of his first followers were so devoted to him and so impressed by his nearness to God that they became convinced of his having been raised from the dead and taken to heaven soon to return, the kingdom he had proclaimed in train. These first followers persuaded others others, Paul chief among them, that strictures of the Jewish law adherence to which would have stifled the growth of the movement should be set aside in recognition “that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Finally, in competition with pagan rivals, most critically in the century preceding the conversion of Constantine, the gaining of adherents was aided by a reputation for the “manhandling” and exorcism of demons in a demon-haunted world.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 17:48:28 +0000
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