Would Christianity have survived without Constantine?

[SeattleUte]

seriously though, what else is there to say on the subject? Solon has spoken, does anyone have the cajones or even the ability to contradict him? I don't.

I think that in a world that had lost representative government, was turning away from education and other intellectual pursuits, was becoming increasingly militarized, where economic disparity was growing and more of the farmers' and traders' income was being given to the military, emperors were being deified, etc., Christianity (with its excellent founding literature and somewhat innovative message of the last shall be the first and spiritual things matter most) became the best available option. Christianity increasingly was required to provide the instutional structure and replace moral codes that were being lost and forgotten. Rome, like the Soviet Union, was imploding under the weight of corruption and a stifling of the human creative spirit by a police state. Christianity was filling a vacuum, and its triumph would happen regardless of Constantine. Ultimately, most of the barbarians who sacked Rome in 410 had been generals and soldiers in the Roman army fighting other barbarians.

I love Gibbon's narrative of the fall of Rome; but at the end he claims the foregoing was caused by Christianity, which I think is untenable. I think (and the current consensus seems to be) that Christianity was a symptom not a cause of the foregoing.

By the way, Solon, I thnk you would love "The Swerve" by Stephen Greenblatt.

[Solon]

By the way, Solon, I thnk you would love "The Swerve" by Stephen Greenblatt.

thanks for the recommendation. I just downloaded it to my kindle.

[Katy Lied]

Thanks Solon.