TheConstantinian shift was, according to sometheologians andhistorians of antiquity, a set of political and theological changes that took place during the4th-century under the leadership of EmperorConstantine the Great.Rodney Clapp claims that the shift or change started in the year 200.[1] The term was popularized by theMennonite theologianJohn H. Yoder.[2] He claims that the change was not just freedom from persecution but an alliance between theState and the Church that led to a kind ofCaesaropapism. The claim that there ever was a Constantinian shift has been disputed;Peter Leithart argues that there was a "brief, ambiguous 'Constantinian moment' in the fourth century", but that there was "no permanent, epochal 'Constantinian shift'".[3]
Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337) adoptedChristianity as his system of belief after his victory at theBattle of Milvian Bridge in 312.[4][5][6] The following year, 313, he issued theEdict of Milan with his eastern colleague,Licinius. The edict legalised Christianity alongside other religions in theRoman Empire. In 325 theFirst Council of Nicaea signalled consolidation of Christianity under an orthodoxy endorsed by Constantine. While this did not make other Christian groups outside the adopted definition illegal, dissentingArian bishops were initially exiled. But Constantine reinstatedArius just before the heresiarch died in 336 and exiled the OrthodoxAthanasius of Alexandria from 335 to 337. In 380 EmperorTheodosius I made Christianity the Roman Empire'sofficial religion (seeState church of the Roman Empire). In 392 Theodosius passed legislation prohibiting allpagan cultic worship.[7]
During the 4th century, however, there was no real unity between church and state: in the course of theArian controversy,Arian or semi-Arian emperors exiled leading Trinitarian bishops, such asAthanasius (335, 339, 356, 362, 365),Hilary of Poitiers (356), andGregory of Nyssa (374[8]); just as leading Arian andAnomoean theologians such asAëtius (fl. 350) also suffered exile.
Towards the end of the century, BishopAmbrose of Milan made the powerful EmperorTheodosius I (reigned 379–395) do penance for several months after themassacre of Thessalonica (390) before admitting him again to theEucharist. On the other hand, only a few years later,Chrysostom, who as bishop ofConstantinople criticized the excesses of the royal court, was eventually banished (403) and died (407) while traveling to his place of exile.
Critics of state-aligned Christianity often point to the ascension of Constantine as the beginning ofCaesaropapism: according to this critique, the official Christianity of the Roman state rapidly became a religious and metaphysical justification for the existence, exercise, and expansion of worldly political power, ultimately facilitating earthly Christian empire both for Rome and its successors acrossChristendom. Similar criticisms are levied byChristian anarchists, who claim that the Constantinian shift triggered theGreat Apostasy by transforming the religion into a means for preserving the ruling elite's power and justifying violence.[9]
Augustine of Hippo, who originally had rejected violence in religious matters, later justified it theologically against those he considered heretics, such as theDonatists, who themselves violently harassed their opponents.[10] Before him,Athanasius believed that violence was justified in weeding out heresies that could damn all future Christians.[11] He felt that any means was justified in repressingArian belief.[12] In 385,Priscillian, a bishop in Spain, was the first Christian to be executed for heresy, though the most prominent church leaders rejected this verdict.
Theologians critical of the Constantinian shift also see it as the point at which membership in the Christian church became associated with a social concept of citizenship, rather than reflecting one's internal decisions and feelings. American theologianStanley Hauerwas notes the shift as forming part of the foundation for the contemporary American conception of Christianity, one that is closely associated withpatriotism andcivil religion.[citation needed]
What might be called the Constantinian shift began around the year 200 and took more than two hundred years to grow and unfold to full bloom.
The most impressive transitory change underlying our common experience, one that some thought was a permanent lunge forward in salvation history, was the so-called Constantinian shift.
374[:] Gregory is exiled under Valens
