St Paul had argued against marriage of believers to unbelievers, but when the young Church found it had an excess of women (maybe the men were all Mithraists) it winked at women marrying non-Christians, but still objected to Christian men marrying non-Christian women.
This was from before I subscribed to you site. It very much illustrates what has been happening in 2025, the whipsaw between Left and Right. The Left has been trying and failing to unseat Christianity, religion of any kind, from seats of power is politics and academia, and the Right has been trying and failing to return Christianity and religion to its "rightful" (pun intended) place.
Christianity has not righted itself since Constantine's placing it in the power constellation, which took it from its seat in the heavenlies down to earth. What Jesus started was a Kingdom of Heaven, not an earthly kingdom where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal. For if it were on the world, he would have called down legions of angels to defend him against the religious and political powers that sought his death. He was to restore his rightful place as the sole ruler of his people, which Samuel had warned the Jews they were rejecting in demanding an earthly king over themselves so many centuries ago. Now Constantine had put in place what would shortly become an earthly church, ruled by men in place of their Lord. To be replaced by vicars was to unseat who became but a vicarious king.
Everybody picks on Constantine, but maybe the Empire was such a mess that it fell into Christian hands like overripe fruit - the Christians just did social service better. Basically, the Christian’s picked up the pieces.
It was not Constantine who did away with religious liberty in the Empire - it was Theodosius I, in 381. Blame him, not Constantine, for what you don’t like. Yes, from our point of view it was the wrong decision - it’s interesting to guess what might have happened had he not done so. It’s entirely possible that, had we had religious liberty, Catharism might have overthrown the cultural dominance of Christianity in the West about 1200 AD. (And no, Catharism is NOT Christianity!)
"The political situation led to much dissemination and moral cowardice ..."
Dissimulation, maybe?
Excellent article, lots of food for thought. "Everyone believes in freedom of conscience until they’re winning."
Whoops! Thank you. I have changed!
You're welcome. The eye sees the consonants, and the brain thinks, "That looks right!"
All sounds disturbingly familiar..
Maybe the newer additions to the Roman Empire had never grown up with the Roman Gods? Maybe they also noticed they would never become “patricians”?
St Paul had argued against marriage of believers to unbelievers, but when the young Church found it had an excess of women (maybe the men were all Mithraists) it winked at women marrying non-Christians, but still objected to Christian men marrying non-Christian women.
This was from before I subscribed to you site. It very much illustrates what has been happening in 2025, the whipsaw between Left and Right. The Left has been trying and failing to unseat Christianity, religion of any kind, from seats of power is politics and academia, and the Right has been trying and failing to return Christianity and religion to its "rightful" (pun intended) place.
Christianity has not righted itself since Constantine's placing it in the power constellation, which took it from its seat in the heavenlies down to earth. What Jesus started was a Kingdom of Heaven, not an earthly kingdom where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal. For if it were on the world, he would have called down legions of angels to defend him against the religious and political powers that sought his death. He was to restore his rightful place as the sole ruler of his people, which Samuel had warned the Jews they were rejecting in demanding an earthly king over themselves so many centuries ago. Now Constantine had put in place what would shortly become an earthly church, ruled by men in place of their Lord. To be replaced by vicars was to unseat who became but a vicarious king.
Everybody picks on Constantine, but maybe the Empire was such a mess that it fell into Christian hands like overripe fruit - the Christians just did social service better. Basically, the Christian’s picked up the pieces.
It was not Constantine who did away with religious liberty in the Empire - it was Theodosius I, in 381. Blame him, not Constantine, for what you don’t like. Yes, from our point of view it was the wrong decision - it’s interesting to guess what might have happened had he not done so. It’s entirely possible that, had we had religious liberty, Catharism might have overthrown the cultural dominance of Christianity in the West about 1200 AD. (And no, Catharism is NOT Christianity!)